Summer Life Update

August was a VERY busy, crazy month for the Studers. Please see previous post (Jinxy Cat) and following posts for further details.

On July 24th, we had the sweetest little addition come into our lives. My cousin Stefanie and her husband Justin gave birth to our goddaughter, Mallory Lauren. She is the tiniest, sweetest little sugar plum. She came into the world 2 months early because she is a little diva. We already love her so much.

Our months of kindness have been going very well. In August, we made a donation to an Erie gym class (for stacking supplies) through donorschoose.org. Donors Choose is an awesome website where teachers all over the country post classroom wishes/needs. Donors (i.e. regular people) can search different states/cities or types of wishes/needs and make donations towards the projects. We were glad to support the town we live in and Brandon was happy to support hand-eye coordination in Erie youth. hah.

Dad organized a surprise 49th birthday party for my Mum on August 1st. Talk about a party! Justin's band played and there were so many people there. Repeat Offenders (Justin's band) was awesome and they played long into the night. Tasha made an awesome Mem Slide ( http://memoryslide.blogspot.com/ ) for my mom and everyone loved it. SCF put on a ridiculous lip-synching/dancing rendition of "Waiting for a Star to Fall." Overall, awesome party!

Tasha and I made an outrageously long road trip down to North Carolina to see my dearest Emily Mae get married. It was a perfect ceremony and reception and I was soooo happy to see all my favorite Costa Rica friends again. It had been since 2004 since I'd seen Meg!!! Pura Vida for all of us being back together again<3>

Jinxy Cat

Ahhh, lunatic that I am...we got ANOTHER kitten. In early August, after my eye appointment, I sashayed into the pet store and made solid eye contact with a little darling of a kitten for a good 30 seconds. Afterwards, I met Brandon for dinner at Smokey Bones (our favorite!!) and told him that I loved that little cat that looked into my soul and I should've got it. He thought I was kidding and responded, "Go ahead." ...he should know better.

After dinner, I went straight back to the pet store and picked that sweet little bundle up. Her name is Jinx and she is all black with the tiniest white patch (looks like a bow tie) on her neck.

Lola, of course, was not impressed by our new addition.

But, as time as passed, Lola and Jinx have come to love each other. Lulu is nicer now and kind of just likes to leave people alone (what a teenager!) Jinx on the other hand has come into her own and showed as that she is truly a maniac. She wants to copy Lola in everything she does (drinking out of the fish tank, eating out of the same bowl, playing with Lulu's bouncy mouse- her favorite toy). They really make us laugh all the time and are so silly. Even though two cats (both crazy and bad) are a little much, they seem to suit us perfectly.

Beer Olympics- July Kindness

Haven't posted in forever and I need to give attention where attention is due:


On July 11th, Brandon and I organized the first annual Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics, hosted at my parent's house in Johnstown, PA (thanks!). It was quite the hilarious, messy, obnoxious success. We had players, observers, refs (mom!), and substitutes (thank God!) As it was our first try at organizing a day long drinking extravanganza; I believe we overshot what was manageable for games. We were able to be flexible and take some much needed unscheduled breaks and lots of snacking to make it through the whole day.


We raised over $170 dollars to donate to Make-A-Wish foundation and had a lot of fun all the while. Teams were chosen at random (pull from a hat) and each designed their team name and logo (hooray for adults loving face and hair paint!) Needless to say, as the day went on, team spirit grew exponentially.

Games included (but not limited to): The Anchorman, Dingbat Relay, Beer Bong Races, Flip Cup, the Monkey Chug, and 100 cup Beer Pong. It was quite obvious as we neared mid-day that substitute teammates were needed. Luckily, we had some late participants show up and even our dads stepped up to the challenge of celebrity participants to give some other team members a chance to sit out and regroup (i.e. EAT and drink massive amounts of water).


In the end, it was Team Whiskas to pull out the day's victory and will have their names engraved on the "Studer Cup" (aka Das Boot). Our Team "Baby Bump" members (observers only-geez, what kind of people do you think we are!) were in charge of selecting MVPs for a variety of different awards, including: Loud Mouth, Smack Talk, MVD, Pukin' Rally, and the Shark. By the end of the day, we were all pretty exhausted, extremely giddy and happy, and glad to have participated in such a fun day to raise money for such a great cause. Thanks to everyone who helped and participated. Next year should be even bigger!!