Disappointing.

I left over half of Marc's birthday ice cream cake out overnight. Ugh!

Summer Vacation

Not that I have a job to take a vacation from, but this summer truly does feel like one long vacation. Trips to the UP, trips to Ohio, an upcoming trip to Iowa, visits to the Gardens, the splashparks, the playgrounds, to friend's houses, boat rides, etc... We haven't stopped. And the last five things we fit in just the last week... sometimes more than once.

Monday we hit the Gardens with an ex-coworkers, it was really nice to see her and her daughter. Tuesday, I had one of my college/career ladies come over to hang out during the day. Wednesday, a Dr. appt. in the morning, grocery shopping the afternoon, and a date night in the evening (which was really nice, by the way - I loved the movie and the company.)

Thursday, we walked and worked around the house and hit the splash park in the late afternoon. We all ended up out on the boat after dinner. Friday we were at home mostly, however, we hit the lake again in the evening. We even tied the boy's toy boats to the side of the boat with fishing line so they could throw and retrieve them. I think it bought us a little more time out on the water.

Saturday, I was able to head out by myself a bit in the morning to do a little garage sale-ing, grocery shopping, and hit CVS. It seems silly, but it was really, really nice to be out by myself for a bit. After naps, we headed to friend's house to celebrate Marc's birthday. It's not until next Wednesday, but we will be gone then in IA. So we grilled and gave him his presents and had cake. I thought I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures of it all to share (however, when all was said and done, I realized I had my camera with me all along... shoot!).

Today is mostly packing up and getting ready for our trip. We head to friend's house tomorrow to spend the night and then we hit the road early squirrally Tuesday morning for Des Moines. I don't think I will have any internet access for the week, so the blog will be quiet. We are looking forward to seeing Grandma and Grandpa and I am pretty sure they are excited to see us.

I better get packing. Have a great week.

My Debut

I don't think he believes us...

Tonight at dinner we had a great dinner of ribs, corn on the cob, grilled sourdough bread, and oriental salad. However, the boys kept referring to the meat as chicken, which they often do and often we don't correct them. Shame on us, but it gets them to eat whatever meat we are serving if they think it is somehow related to a chicken nugget.

However, tonight, in the middle of the dinner, Marc leaned over close to Andrew and whispered, "Do you want to know a secret? It's not chicken, it's pig."

I wasn't sure how it was going to go over telling Andrew the truth about what he was eating, but he just kinda sat there with a funny grin on his face. So Marc continued...

"And do you want to know another secret? When you eat a hamburger, that's a cow?!"

Again, the funny little grin. Not much said and well, we ended up letting it drop and continued on with our dinner.

About 10 minutes later, long after we had forgotten about what animals we were eating, Andrew leans over to Marc and whispers...

"Do you want to know a secret? When you eat french fries... that's ZEBRA!"

This stuff is hard to find!

Up and coming - Date Night!!

Marc and I are having a long overdue date night tomorrow. We are having a one of our college/career young ladies come over to feed the boys dinner and put them to bed, while my hubby and I go out to dinner and see a movie. We are heading out to an early dinner then going to see the new Batman Movie. Very exciting.

Summer Salads

Here are two of my favorite summer (or anytime) salads. I can't take credit for the original recipes, I just tweak 'em a bit.

Poppyseed Cranberry Salad (this is also good in a wrap)

• Romaine Lettuce
• Sliced Deli Ham
• Cashews
• Chunked Apples
• Dried Cranberries
• Poppyseed Dressing

Oriental Chicken Salad

• Coleslaw
• Toasted Sliced Almonds
• Sunflower Seeds
• Raman Noodles
• Manderin Oranges
• Leftover Burbon Chicken (a favorite in this home).
• Oriental Dressing (Made with vinager, oil, sugar, and the oriental seasoning pkts. from the raman noodles)

Enjoy!

Herbie

My boys have a new movie they l.o.v.e! Herbie: Fully Loaded. They are kinda picky with their movies and really don't want to watch anything else other than CARS. But my mom brought Herbie to vacation with us in June, then we were able to record it with our DVR. Maybe it's the racing theme, but they think it's awesome. I kinda like it, too... but then again, It's something beside CARS.

Summer Lovin' had me a Blast.

Recent Reads

I recently finished a couple books. I find that I read more in the summer months than winter. I'm not sure why that is, it just seems to be that way. So, I grabbed a Grisham before vacation.

This was a good book, it was.... but for a Grisham book, I was a little disappointed. I have come to have high standards for his books. It's okay, John, I already have another one of your tales checked out of the library.

The last book was one that had been sitting on my shelf since Andrew was born. A woman from our very first small group brought it too me and it never got read, but it never got officially moved or thrown away. So it sat on our main floor book shelf staring at me for over four years. I finally picked it up before we headed to Ohio last week. Wow - once I picked it up and I couldn't put it down. I am not sure how to even describe it. Weird, captivating, thought provoking. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.