Happy Birthday, Baby!!!

Today is my gorgeous husband's birthday and to celebrate I wanted to share some photos from over the years....like a pictoral "walk down memory lane". I had some photos I really wanted to use, but as I went looking for them they were nowhere to be found. My gut tells me my ridiculously good-looking husband must have smelled a blog post coming and hid all photographic evidence of a childhood......well, all evidence but these (insert evil laugh)!!!!

Micah @ 1 yr- I love this face!!! You can already see that he will grow up to be easy on the eyes.

 Already quite the little man...he still makes this annoyed look (mostly at me....when I write blog posts about him)!!

 This is my all-time favorite picture of Micah and his mom!! It makes me smile every time I see it!

Micah, almost all grown-up....the whole world is in front of him (by the way, he still has those sandals and that tee shirt!!)

And then he meets me!! 

And we had this little guy..... 

Happy Birthday, Micah!!! (my goodness, he really is a big chunk of eye candy, isn't he!!)

Oooooo, that smell.......

This weekend I decided to pay homage to my southern heritage. As a girl growing up in the South, I was exposed to many different (and fabulous) foods......fried chicken, sweet tea, and cheese grits to name just a few. One of my favorites is known by a few names: shrimp boil, crab boil, low country boil.......but they all mean one thing.......YUM!! Plus, you get to use the best spice combination man EVER created....Old Bay Seasoning!!!!!!

Here is the actual recipe........it is also mandatory that you listen to southern rock while you cook (I chose Lynyrd Skynyrd).

 

here's all the ingredients ....so excited!!!

sun tea is a MUST!

no southern meal is complete without cornbread (the corn muffins were regular size however, this picture makes them look huge!!)

Silly Charlie.....

I think we may have a very spoiled doggie on our hands!! When he was a puppy, Charlie was more than willing to lay on the floor. Then, the floor was no longer good enough, so he moved to the window seat with the hard brown cushions. Now the awful brown cushions are not good enough for the little prince....he has commandeered Ezra's toys for extra cushioning.

This is truly a sad state of affairs......

Sunshine is Delicious....

Let me preface this to say that I am sorry for all my southern friends and family that are still under the oppressive heat wave.....but here in Indiana, we are having a completely drop dead gorgeous day!!! Blue skies and big, fluffy clouds.....

This is our forecast for the next few days!! So happy.....this summer has been way too hot and muggy for this girl.

YAY!!

 While we are REALLY enjoying having our windows open and a breeze blowing through the house (free from the tyranny of the AC), no one is taking more pleasure from open windows more than my baby girl, Ozzy. Her world has become complete.... If we could ever switch places with an animal, I want to be a house cat!!

Tee Shirt Tuesday!!!

Today's tee is brought to you by the letter M......

My husband, Micah, loves the two hecklers from The Muppet Show. Way down deep inside, he is just a cynical old man.....in puppet form. They are all kindred spirits!!!

Find this over at Busted Tees......check out girlfriends 'tude in this pic!!!

Bet you never knew their names......Statler and Waldorf!!

T-Shirt Tuesdays

I love t-shirts (or tee shirts. if that's how you like it). In fact, most of my wardrobe consists of t-shirts, as does my husband's. My husband even has several from high school!!

As an ode to my favorite piece of clothing, I am beginning a new post here called T-Shirt Tuesdays. Each Tuesday, I will post a different tee or theme of tees that have caught my eye (read: these will be t-shirts I want/need to own!!) You can also send me your favorite pics or ideas for t-shirts and I will feature them on T-Shirt Tuesday!

To help me through the mourning process (being that the last Harry Potter movie has just come out and with it the reign of Potter is done...boo) I am dedicating this T-Shirt Tuesday to my favorite child wizard and his crew.

Go visit the etsy shop, evietees, to purchase this one!!

The best Potter book, according to me, is The Prisoner of Azkaban. I love all the twists and turns. Everyone needs a Marauder's Map!!

This one is at Busted Tees

Who doesn't want to be in this secret club?! I wonder what my patronus would be....

VerHage Family Reunion

This past weekend we had a family reunion of sorts. It all started when Micah's sister announced she and her family were coming to Indiana this summer. As word got around about the visit, more and more VerHages wanted to come party. Soon enough family that we had never even met were planning on coming!! We were all so excited!! The date was set and the VerHage's began descending on the farm....

Here are some photos of our day!!

Everyone is here!!

Cousin Josh teaching his son the fine art of frisbee



We did a lot of hanging out and talking



more hanging out and talking...

Grandad, Grandma, and the boys (minus Mike!!)

In addition to gathering together, we took lots of photos of each other. I love Chelsea's pose in this one....she looks like Miss America!!

Pops with some of the cousins

The reunion was a hit!! We sat and talked, played Cornhole, had target practice, and ate lots of good food. There was so much fun, in fact, planning began for a reunion next summer.....

So, you may be asking yourself, what do two introverts like Micah and Steph do to unwind after all the people interaction? We go shoot guns!!

With Pops watching Ezra for us, we walked out to the shooting range for some down time......

Micah setting up the "target" (the cardboard box not the dog!!)

I'm concentrating real hard

Maizy is such a good girl

Micah trying desperately to keep up with his gunslinger wife

My MedStat Adventure

This past Thursday afternoon I began to notice a fullness and pressure in my left ear. I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, but as the night wore on it became increasingly uncomfortable. I must preface this with the fact I have a low pain tolerance so any little pain is amplified in my brain!! By Friday morning, my ear was hurting and I began to have a general feeling of sickness over my body. Again, being a worrier and knowing about a small measles out break in the area, my intuition told me it was the plague. When I informed my husband of this he just sighed, shook his head, and went back to his sudoku, clearly upset by the news. When I woke this morning, the pain was unbearable so I decided to see a medical professional to confirm my suspicions. I went to our local urgent care facility, MedStat.

As the doctor was checking my ears, I realized he kept trying to look in my sore ear again and again and kept getting frustrated. He informed me my outer ear was so swollen and infected there was no way to even get to the ear drum. The nurse then came in to irrigate my ear in order to clear out my ear enough to see the ear drum. The procedure was excruciating!! I felt like George Bailey in the Mr Gower's back room. However, they were able to clear the ear enough to diagnosis the ear infection.

The doctor then looked at me and asked, quite innocently, if I was under stress. I looked back at him and laughed (well, not really laughed...but I did smile as I replied back to him that my life does lean towards stress). He informed me that not only to I have a nasty ear infection, but I have possible TMJ issues. The TMJ pain can manifest as ear pain as I clinch my jaw almost daily...hourly. He then gave me three prescriptions...boo!!

my spoils for the day!!

As I sit here and write this post, my ear is already beginning to feel better despite all the poking and prodding. Though I prefer treating illness naturally, there are times when Western medicine is best and I am thankful for it!!

Cinnamon Bread

After many failed attempts at making bread, I finally got it!! Just as I was ready to throw in the towel and swear off bread making for the rest of my natural life, a friend gave me some pointers. She also lives in an old house, with all the lovely ready-made drafts! I made a cinnamon bread recipe from The Pioneer Woman . Micah made me document my success...so here are my pictures!! 

fresh out of the oven...

it's perfect!!

To dye for....

This weekend, we decided to dye Easter eggs with Ezra. I can remember the Easters past, dying eggs with my family...the weird vinegar smell...the impatience of waiting for the egg to color. I wanted Ezra to experience all the fun! Little did I know my boys didn't get the whole excitement thing like I did....oh well, here is the story!



here begins the coloring process...



ezra keeping a close eye on dad's egg dying skill

the boys checking out decoration ideas

charlie trying to be patient and hoping we would drop an egg for him!

why is the wait so long?!

ahhh....finally!

the boys with the newly dyed eggs...i think they were just happy to be done with mom's egg thing!

charlie still being patient....

this is the face you get when you take too many pictures of your husband and son while making them do silly crafts!

Piano for sale

Today I am shamelessly using my blog to sell our piano. This piano belonged to Micah's mom and we inherited it when Micah's dad moved. I had originally planned to continue my piano education with this instrument....well, life proved otherwise!!

As Ezra is getting older, he requires more room and time for therapy. The piano takes up a good chunk of the living room, which happens to be the largest room in the house and consequently where Ez's therapy takes place. It pains me to say this, as a musician, but the piano has become a hindrance rather than a help. This instrument belongs to a home that will get use out of it!!

I had the piano professionally tuned and assessed by Charles Wesco on 3/23/11. He gave it a fantastic passing grade!! There are many more quality playing years left on this instrument!

We are asking $850, but are willing to negotiate.....email me if you are interested or know of someone who is interested, bohemianbotanicals@gmail.com .



1960 Wurlitzer Spinet Piano w/ matching bench- $850 OBO



Adventures in Farmland

Last weekend my father-in-law (Pops) was out of town. When he goes out, we usually take care of the animals he has on his property (aka- 'the farm'). As a city girl, I am fascinated with all the "farm stuff". I love watching the vegetables get bigger and the flowers bloom. I really love the animals though. Last summer, Pops decided to raise chickens. So he built a coop and got about 6 chickens to lay eggs for food. We call them "the girls".

Anyway, while Pops was out of town, we watched after the chickens. It wasn't difficult as winter tends to make chickens stay indoors. All I had to do was go to the farm and make sure they were still alive and gather the eggs they had laid. I felt so wholesome...very "Little House"!!

The girls were safe in their coop. In order to keep in the heat, there is thick, plastic sheeting over the doors. This makes for blurry pictures, but I don't think the chickens mind!! Here is one of the girls on the roosting pole.

Once the chickens heard me coming, they began to squawk and came over to the door looking for some handouts. The girls have quickly discovered that humans mean food. Here they are begging for treats (they didn't get any as I was fresh out of grubs and bugs).

here are the fresh eggs!!

this is the girls' home (coop). It's the fanciest one I have ever seen (ok, i've only seen two, but this is definitely the best!)