8 Things That Made This A Great Summer

Summer vacation is almost over.
(*sigh*)
It seems like just yesterday I was grousing and complaining about the gaggy ending to the school year and just wanted it to be over.
My children are helping me adjust to the upcoming school year by doing everything they can to make me wish it would hurry up and get here already so I can enjoy some peace and quiet around the place again.
They're cooperative like that.

To celebrate the end of what has easily been our best summer vacation in years I made a list of the 8 things that made this summer great:

1.  The Lake
This will officially go down as the summer my son discovered the lake.  And that swimming in the lake about rules all.  You can run and scream and horse around in ways that you just can't when Grandpa has set up patrol on the pool deck.

2.  The Back Deck
Many years ago, after much begging and pleading and promising to be his best friend, Prince Charming installed French Doors for me in our living room.  They always looked so glamorous and classy on Days Of Our Lives and I was desperate to throw them open and step out onto my flower filled veranda and marry the love of my life whom I had thought was dead but had really just had a face transplant and now looked like someone else and went by a totally different name.  This summer that dream was realized. 
Just the flower filled veranda part, though.
(the love of my life thing happened a long time ago)
So, if I had to write an essay entitled Where I Spent My Summer, it would be this:

3.  Avocado Salad
Chop together a bunch of avocados, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, and garlic.
Toss with lime juice and olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
For a little extra punch, throw in some grilled shrimp.
(or some fresh jalapeno if you want to serve it to someone who says stuff like
"Yeah, no it's good....not too spicy though, is it?")
Enjoy for lunch on Sunday afternoon or for dinner on the sidelines at football practice.
Put it on fish tacos, scoop it up with tortilla chips, or eat it with your fingers while you sip margaritas
(if you're in to that kind of thing)
(which I am)
It's delicioso.
(Thank you to my sweet sister-in-law for posting it and inspiring my new favorite salad for the next forever.)

 

photo from Set Your Fat on Fire Fitness

4.  House of Cards, The Walking Dead, Scandal, Downton Abbey
Through a fluky click on my laptop, we ended up with Netflix streaming,
and now I speak to everyone with a slight British accent,
desperately want to go to Washington DC where all the nefarious people are,
and am terrified that at any moment an assemblage of zombies is going to silently appear out of nowhere and eat everyone I know.
It's awesome.

5.  The Island
Our 5th annual trip to visit friends who live on a small island on Puget Sound was one of the major highlights of our vacation months.  We did things and went places while we were there that we hadn't done before because the children were finally big enough for me not to have to follow them around and worry that they would fall off a rope swing and kill themselves.
Or get stuck in a tree, 3 feet above a slimy, shallow pond, that may
(or may not)
possibly have been filled with fish poop.

6.  S'mores
I love toasted marshmallows and I think I roasted more of them this summer than I have ever.
I love holding them over the hot coals and slowly turning the stick until the outside of the marshmallow gets all golden and crispy and melty.  Then I pull off the outer part that's done, eat it, and put the rest of it back over the heat.  Then I do that again until it's all gone.
Unless I'm in the mood to just set it on fire so that it gets all black and burned and flavorful in such a way that makes my toes curl.
Oooooooo.....decisions, decisions.

7.  The Princess Tea Party
Once upon a time Grandma discovered the Disney Store.
And the girlies played princess happily ever after.
And then they did it all over again when my niece came to visit, because what's a Princess Tea Party with Princess Jasmine?

8.  My Lensbaby
I fell in love with my Lensbaby this summer.  We hadn't really spoken in a couple of years.  It really wanted different things out of life, and I just wasn't prepared to go that way.  The last few months, though, really turned things around for us.  I don't know if it changed, or if I did, but we've reunited...and it feels so good.

I hope you had a great summer!

And I love ya'.

 

Project 52 2K13~ Week 33 {Anticipation}

I have no idea how this happened.
I was in no way prepared for this to happen.
I only went in to Target for yoga pants and toilet cleaner.

Then she asked if we get her backpack while we were there.
I told her we could look at them. 
Then she says, "Do you think we could get my school supplies?"
And I. Said.  Yes.

Before I realized what was happening, we were in the school supply aisle grabbing two boxes of crayons, and six white glue sticks, and 3 pocket folders with pictures of Minnie Mouse on them, and a glitter watercolor set
(because, why not?)
and 24 Ticonderogas....in a neon rainbow assortment. 
They were so pretty.  They were all so pretty.
So new and sharp and unblemished by time in a plastic box crammed into the back of a desk behind 47 crumpled pieces of paper, a stale, half-eaten package of fruit snacks, and the 2" poetry binder the teacher insisted we needed but stopped using after 5 weeks.
 
I was charmed. 
I was beguiled.
I was hypnotized with the beauty of it all.  
A set of fine-tip white board markers that perfectly match all the varying shades on the color wheel?  It doesn't get much more beautimous than that.
That's right.  I said beautimous.

Let me tell you something. 
As I sank deeper and deeper into that school supply abyss, adding 3 boxes of pre-sharpened colored pencils and a tape dispenser shaped like a hot pink high-heeled shoe that I would never in real life wear to our cart, I was not alone.
First she saw it, and then she grabbed it.  The backpack she'd be waiting all summer for, and didn't even know she wanted.  When she put that backpack on, felt that gray and pink padded nylon settle onto her shoulders, pulled out the matching lunchbox from the lunchbox-pocket built into the front, she knew. 
She knew the way you know about a good melon.
And she.  Did not.  Take.  It.  Off.
She wore it through the whole store for the entire rest of the time we were shopping.  The checker had to lean over the counter with her scan gun and paw through all the paper stuffed inside to find the price tag so she could ring it up.
She brought it home, filled it up, and kept right on wearin' it. 
Watched TV wearing it.
Ate dinner wearing it.
Played Monkey In The Middle after football wearing it.
She would have slept in it if I hadn't been able to convince her that she'd break the crayons if she rolled over on it in the middle of the night.

Forgive me, Summer, for I have sinned.
We bought school supplies.
And she is sooooooooooooooooooooooo excited for second grade.
(That's right.  I used 23 'o's.)
(She's THAT excited.)

A Watched Chicken Never Lays

I know what you're thinking.

That.  Is.  Not the Expression.

Which clearly indicates that you have never been to the Congo, because that is a Congolese proverb from way way back.
(Trust me.  I know.)
(Except that I didn't.  I had to look it up.)
(It's a true proverb.  I didn't just invent that.)

You can always tell when a chicken is getting ready to lay an egg.  It finds itself a nice little nesting spot in the coop, and then starts to buawk and squawk in decibels that rival that of a Guns & Roses concert,
(it's like having a baby, that way)
(except chickens do it EVERY DANG DAY)
which makes you run around the house closing all the doors and windows to shut out the racket, burying your head in the sand to the noise that is surely sending your neighbors into a tizzy, because this isn't a farm, you know.  There's an Applebee's right around the corner which would totally not be there if this was a farm.

Afterward, though, you're certain that you've got yourself a nice fresh dozen sitting out there.  So you send the kids out to collect them and they come right back in and say,

"No eggs yet, Mom."

You know why?  Because a watched chicken never lays.

A few mornings ago, Prince Farming walked into the kitchen carrying two white eggs, and said,

"I just watched the chickens lay these eggs."

I was immediately skeptical because he was lying.

"Yeah, I was just standing there watching and they started to lay, and then these eggs just popped out.  Right in front of me.  Right there."

He motioned with his flat hand outstretched in front of him to emphasize the 'right there' part.
Because, you know, he was lying.
Like a rug.

The idea of actually watching a chicken lay an egg is kind of...I don't know....revolting?  Not to be gross, but do you know where those eggs come out?  It's the same place that horses use to drop a steaming load on the sand, endlessly entertaining my children as to the bodily functions of the equine.

I feel like egg laying should be private.  No one really needs to see that.  Let the poor chickens lay their lot in peace. 

But.....There's always that moment when no one is around and curiosity gets the better of you.  One of the birds starts to squawk, and you think to yourself,

"I wonder....."

So, you slowly open the door, and tip toe ever so softly to the side of the coop, and stand as quiet as a little church mouse for a sweet forever, your feet freezing in the wet, morning grass, hoping to see something that will probably make you never want to eat eggs again.

And nothing happens.
That chicken just keeps buawking and squawking with its tail full of egg until its eyes pop out of its head and all its feathers explode like dynamite of its body.
That bird is not going to lay that egg.  Not while you're standing there, it's not.

You know why?

Because a watched chicken never lays.
That's all I'm sayin'.