Wow, I have not been good about updating this at all! Looks like I'm just going to have to give you the highlights.
Chris' parents and his sister Alicia came for a visit this past July. Chris and I did our best to impress with our mad cooking skills and showed off the tourist attractions. We even put Chris' dad to work in assisting us in building a wall in our room to bring us closer to getting our closet finished.
I'm still not doing any running other than the occasional oh-crap-I'm-running-after-the-dog-and-I-didn't-even-realize-it. My foot still feels "funny," which is the word I've found to be best able to describe the kind of sensation I'm experiencing. On the upside, I did 45 minutes on the elliptical this week and thought I might pass out. I took that as a good sign.
This past weekend, our friends David and Becka, joined us up north to celebrate Chris' birthday weekend. It makes me jealous each year that he has a fun summer birthday while I'm stuck with one two weeks after Christmas. My parents' place in Glen Arbor was rented until Saturday, but we drove to Bellaire on Friday and stayed at a B&B in town. We also went to
Short's Brewery, where we ended up talking to some random patrons from Dublin, OH, Jack and Libby. What are the odds, really? They were staying at their friends' place in Bellaire but their friends bailed last minute.
Jack and Libby invited us out on their pontoon boat for the day on Saturday and we readily accepted. You can never have too many friends, I say! We had a glorious time pontooning through a chain of lakes to Torch Lake, which is absolutely gorgeous. I probably would never have gone there save for this happy meeting. We swam, some of us imbibed while some of us were still recovering from Friday night's consumption, and rediscovered our mutual love of Dorito's.
We had so much fun that we missed our dinner reservation for raclette in Traverse. We showered up at Jack and Libby's quarters, downed a margarita or two, and bid our farewell. Jack said we're welcome any time! HaHA! Starving, we stopped in Traverse anyway, missing the coveted Glen Arbor sunset! We rolled in around 9:30, relaxed a bit, and then started all over Saturday with new friends and a new pontoon boat---wait, no scratch that.
Sunday we toured a few wineries (check out
Circa and
Gill's the next time you're touring the Leelanau Penisula), took a lot of pictures, cooked dinner and watched the sunset. I never get sick of sitting out on the deck and watching the sun sink as I blink my eyes. It's pure heaven.
Btw, while we were out of town, Elvis started up a Facebook page.
Check it out and friend him if you feel so inclined. He's a busy little puppy.
The next three fun things on our agenda are our neighbors Mark and Julie's wedding, a visit from our friends Chris and Anna-Lena over Labor Day (the lucky two who are getting married this May in Sweden!) and the DIY Fair in Ferndale, the weekend of September 19. We'll be working feverishly banging out new products for sale. Hope to see you there!
Happy Eighth Birthday Elvis, to my favorite dog in the whole wide world! You bring me so much joy every day, making me laugh over your silly antics. I love observing how you see fun in everything around you, from our daily walks (choose your own route, anyone?) to the things around the yard that you turn into toys (I think I'll try this stick over here). 
You play hide and seek, run crazy laps around the yard and are so slippery we could never catch you (unless you decided you were in desperate need of a belly rub, which is much of the time). You excel at snuggling in bed, especially when it's cold, though I know you well enough not to bump you with my feet as to not disturb your rest. You are a big boy who needs his beauty sleep! You're also an excellent su chef, swiftly removing scraps off the floor and assisting in a quick clean up when needed. 
I'm so proud of how kind you are to all of our friends who drop by. You are polite and greet everyone at the door and also share your toys with them. You are kind, sweet, lovable and I'm so thankful that you picked me! You have made my life infinitely better by being in it. You're my very best fur buddy and I love hanging out with you all the time! Thanks for being such an amazing dog!
The DIY Fair is over...what, oh what will the Rutherfords do now? Lots of things! We're getting our stuff listed at libbie.etsy.com, updating the website, completing custom orders from the show and gearing up for a vacation at October's end. What an awesome experience the DIY Fair was. In 2004, we participated in an art show over Labor Day in Franklin. Not knowing how to market ourselves, our tent seemed boring and empty (in fact, I'm sure it was), and passersby were less than inspired. This time around we worked tirelessly for a complete 180 and were happy about the results. We sold a good deal of our items, doled out about 200 business cards, and generated some positive Form Vibrations awareness. DIY 2010, here we come!
This past Sunday Chris and I hosted our friends, the Felters (Nicki, Fred, and their two angels, Isabella and Charlotte), for a mid-morning breakfast and catch up. Though Nicki and I went to high school together, the Felters now live in Columbus. Charlotte took to Chris right away which made him so happy as our niece was completely afraid of him for months, and Isabella was quite the conversationalist. (Wonder where she got that?!) We spent the morning hunting for cats and playing a game of Q&A. Kudos to Nicki and Fred for doing a great job raising their two beautiful little girls.
View Chris Rutherford's profile