The Burn and the Fire

I've never been known to take a fall gracefully. This was no exception.

My friend, Rutu, was up from Texas with his fiancee (of about one week ... congrats, man). I was really excited to head over to Chicago for dinner and drinks and to see other friends like Nadine, Cormac and Deven. I even convinced my sister to tag along. I had on a super cute jean skirt and my new yellow shirt (from Lubbock's party).

We walked out the front door, made it down the porch stairs and as I was doing my last minute "make-sure-I-have-my-cell-phone-and-wallet" check ... bam!

I forgot I have another set of steps at the end of the sidewalk. It wasn't a very graceful fall. I landed with my skirt hiked up and everything! Oy!

So, I went in and washed off my knee and put some ointment on and thought ... I'm a tough girl ... I should still go. But, then I looked down and the blood was dripping down my knee. Hmmm. Maybe I should stay home.

I texted my apologies (along with a picture as proof) and tried to figure out what to do with my night.

Of course! Build a fire!

We bought a fire pit last week in hopes of using it while our friends were over for an evening grillout, but we never got around to it. If there's one thing I learned from growing up around two Eagle Scouts and a Queen Scout (the Canadian equivalent ... yes ... Queen Scout) ... it's how to build a fire. Well, there's other things ... but I'm talking about fires right now.

So, I got some dryer lint and dried up clumps of grass and small, medium, and large twigs and built myself a tee pee. Kevin tried helping, but all he was doing was putting logs on before it was ready. He almost killed my fire three of four times. But, I triumphed and had a roarin' fire shortly! Go, me!

My sister got her tent out and set it up (to make sure she had all the parts for her trip to Wakarusa this weekend). Lubbock loved going in and out and in and out. I think he needs a tent, too. How fun would that be?

I'm not a big fan of camping. I hate being dirty, I hate bugs, I hate peeing in the woods. In fact, I think the last time I went camping ... a tornado warning was so close to where we were that we decided to pack up and leave. (You can imagine my disappointment.)

In shindigs for kids news ... I have my first two 'gigs' booked! Thanks, Audrey and Heather. They're friends, but I think they count. Audrey is doing a ladybug themed second birthday party and Heather is doing a train party for Joey's second birthday. Both are going to be super cute. In fact ... I have the outside of the ladybug cards complete ... what do you think?

They're very three-dimensional ... the ribbon going from the '2' to the ladybug making it look like the ladybug is flying. I couldn't decide if I liked the loop or the lazy 'S' better, so I did some of both. I hope Audrey likes them!