Kevin headed back to the office Wednesday after being off since June 9th.  He was dragging by the end of the day, as was expected. But overall I’m thinking he is on the upswing. I’m keeping the vitamins pumping into his system, and then working on a way for him to start getting MORE exercise. He ended this ordeal 12 pounds lighter, a side effect (one of the few) that he was relatively delighted about.

The rest of our smilin’ faces are on flickr. Or, they will be by the end of today.

This last week has been a busy and fun-filled one! Having lunch with my blogger girlfriends Rachel and Jade was a kick! And nothing refreshes the soul like some girlfriend laughter and shopping. OK, some eating and drinking too.

I knew Kevin and I were getting back into our brand of routine, when we had our first “date night” since before his surgery. Friday night it was City Lights BBQ and to the brand new theatre, which no one has really discovered yet. This translates into no irritating overcrowded lines and theatres. I hate crowds and rude people, and they seem to flock in abundance at the movie theatre, and on Arizona highways. But with the new theatre the only aggravation on date night is dodging the bad drivers. It is now dubbed my theatre of choice, or the only one I intend on going to until we have to be there a half hour before the show starts to get a seat that isn’t right UNDER the screen.

I WANT this dress!

We went and checked out The Devil Wears Prada with Meryl Streep. The clothes in the movie were drool-worthy to say the least! The script was mediocre at best. I had the urge to go have a cigarette half way through, which is my gauge for whether or not a movie is engaging. BUT, Meryl Streep’s performance saved this rather ordinary movie with her role as Miranda Priestly. I LOVED watching her play the hyper-critical-boss-lady of the fictional magazine Runway! Kevin and I discussed the movie afterwards, and we’d give it a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. 5 of those points would be for Meryl Streep’s performance, 1 would be for Stanley Tucci who played Nigel, and the other one is for that to-die-for dress that Anne Hathaway, who played Andy, wore to work one day. (In the above picture) Overall it was a bit of a cheesy storyline, but the clothes were gorgeous, and Meryl was without a doubt the star of this one.

Photo taken by The Hotness Bug’s SO. My photos of this event will be on flickr sometime today.

Saturday was Jade’s housewarming pool party. Which in my estimation was THE event of the Arizona Summer Season! I finally was able to meet Bug of An Indian Summer, as well as Jade’s husband Ryan and Rachel’s husband Gary. All are fun, down-to-earth people. Tayler and Riley had a wonderful time visiting with Jade’s kids, BT Princess, Jade’s Riley and Bean! Her kids are a complete joy and so well behaved and sweet. As Tayler stated over at LOL Tomboy, I jumped into the pool with my clothes on. Actually I was in shorts and a tank top, and it was approximately 110 degrees out, so a dip just made it more comfortable for visiting. (Yes, this is my story and I’m sticking to it) Jade’s melon ball watermelon was so Martha Stewart, I want to hire her to make it for my next party! I took a picture of it, and will put it on my Flickr next week. (It was impressive! Trust me) All in all it was a wonderful time at Jade’s house visiting and enjoying her beautiful new home and pool. A big thank-you to Jade for inviting my family over for her party. Each of us had a blast!

Sunday was veg-out day for the most part. We had a gift certificate for Sunday Brunch in Scottsdale, at the Hyatt Gainey Ranch Resort’s Squash Blossom restaurant. The gift certificate was a remnant from the Governor’s Ball Silent Auction in March; we were glad we saved this one for a post-surgery outing. They had the tastiest selection of breakfast items and desserts, as well as a huge iced seafood table, with jumbo shrimp, crab legs, and oysters in the half shell. I highly recommend this Sunday Brunch if you’re close to Scottsdale. We went away a little on the stuffed side, a lot on the satsified and pampered side.

The rest of the day was spent watching DVD’s we have wanted to see for a while. We loved Freedomland with Julieanne Moore and Samuel L Jackson. Their acting was another case of saving a script that this time jumped around far too much. Both their roles were mesmerizing. Julieanne Moore evoked conflicting emotions in me, playing the part of a recovered addict who loses her son in a car jacking in a “bad neighborhood.” I don’t want to say much more than that, as this is definitely worth renting. We also enjoyed watching A Good Woman with Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson. Not exactly action packed, but mildly intriguing. The costumes were elegant, and Helen Hunt was appropriately mysterious as the talk-of-the-town seductress Mrs. Erlynne, who tempts the husband of a younger woman, played by Scarlett Johannson.

Tayler and I hit the craft store on Monday, to pick up my starter scrapbooking kit. Tayler has been scrapbooking for about a year now, and is very creative in all her pages. As I am only just starting, with her help, of course, it may take me a while to get really creative. I can see why this is a million dollar industry with the many and varied supplies available. I picked up a “how-to” book and got some ideas for different pages.

We also started hunting down old birthday cards, and all other greeting cards that have been sent to us. Our thoughts being that we can somehow incorporate these sentimental cards into our sentimental scrapbook pages. We’ll see. From what I can tell there is no wrong or right in this type of art. Which is a good thing, since I was never one of those students in school who took art to bring their grade point up. (Knowing it had far more of a chance of bringing it down.) Tayler, on the other hand, seems to have inherited her uncle’s (on her dad’s side) artistic talent. At any rate, this is an opportunity for Tayler and I to do something together that we both can enjoy. She loves art, I love sappy sentimental reminiscing, in all its forms.

With Kevin back to work Wednesday, Tayler and I decided it was time to try and put some organization to the thousands of photos that lay helter-skelter scattered in every spare space of the house! Which will make our first day of scrapbooking today easier, as far as accessing photos. This ended up being an all day project that included one trip to Target for “stuff to put stuff into.” If anyone has any clever scrapbooking ideas, leave them in my comments. I think this is something I’m going to enjoy!

And that was our busy out-of-the ordinary fun-stuff week. Wake up now! It’s time to click over to the next blog.