Picture Pages, Picture Pages

Some overdue pictures--

Here are the smore brownies I made -- yum!


Here's the diaper bag I made for Amber-- complete with pockets on the inside!


Here's the display I made for our booth at the new teacher orientation. I'm proud of my little homemade paint job. :)

Here's our laundry room with the shelves up... T minus one hour until...

...the top two shelves came down...

Here are the great paint footprints on our new laminate floor. Fortunately, it came up with only a little scraping. And those Mr. Clean sponges are truly magic-- great little things!

This weekend will be busy-- I'm making cupcakes tonight for family night tomorrow night, and then Saturday is a barbecue for Rico's 30th birthday, and hopefully some painting. Sunday Brad's in the band at all three services, so by Sunday night we'll be exhausted. Probably won't have much by way of posting to this here blog.

Have a good weekend, all!

I knew there was something not quite right...

I stopped by my old school this afternoon. I had a bunch of candy left over from the teacher orientation fair so I thought they could use some sugar over at Lee Middle. While there I ran into a few people I used to work with, and had a great time reconnecting a bit. I also heard about this. The top picture is Old Yeller, the guy who taught in the room next to mine and screamed at the kids all the time. Apparently the charges have been dropped since, but Old Yeller will not be returning to Lee Middle. The vice principal I talked to today said the spring was just horrid-- parents were calling left and right after the news story broke, convinced that their child had been victimized in some way. I'm horrified and sickened and want to throw up. I knew there was something not quite right about him...

This also came out today. Varsity Lakes is the school at the end of our street, where I went to talk to the principal last December in hopes of landing a math teacher job... not interested any more.

In other news, Williams Sonoma is having their summer sale down here. I stopped in for this, (better picture here) and left with a lot more. Dang it. That's what you get when you never go shopping. All hell breaks loose when you walk into the store. Or maybe my credit card gets loose... whichever. Anyway, if you're a W-S fan, check out their sales in your area. Their spatulas and rubber scrapers are just awesome, and at $4.99 on sale, they're a great deal.

I'm off for the afternoon and am going to try to clean up a bit. The house is still in disarray after our little shelving escapade. Appliances are everywhere, and I need to get some more order in here. We have our small group tonight so I get to experiment with yet another dessert idea. I just love that about hosting a small group-- I get to make all the dessert ideas I've had for a long time, but I don't end up eating them all up! Sharing the calories is a good thing. I'm also going to try to make broccoli and cheese --oh, the word just left me. It's like taking a pizza and folding it in half--- stromboli, that's it. Have refrigerated biscuits for the dough, have broc, have cheese, need recipe. I think I'll do a little searching around on allrecipes.com and see what I come up with.

I'm still just in shock about Old Yeller.

Oh, What a Night.

So yesterday I spent the day at the new teacher orientation, advertising for the company I work for. Rather successful day, lots of conversations, fun people.

Afterward I had to go to the Clerk of Court and do a search for a document showing a legal split of two lots that one of our buyers is trying to build on. Talk about a needle in a haystack. Microfilm? Are you kidding? Not successful.

Throughout the day I had tried to make some phone calls on my cell phone-- voicemails from work, phone call to Steph during a break, etc. The phone kept turning off by itself, full battery, mind you, periodically. By the end of the day it was staying on for no longer than 30 seconds. Argh. I'll need to go to the store AGAIN on Tuesday.

I got home around 4 (after leaving the house at 6:00 a.m.) and decided to put up those shelves in the laundry room. I figured I'd get a few brackets in the wall before Brad got home and we'd finish them up this weekend. Well, I got all 9 brackets up and even got the shelves in place when he walked in the door. We screwed the shelves into the brackets and admired our handywork. Three glorious long shelves, just brimming with potential.

We had dinner and then reorganized the "linen" closet in the hall. It's supposed to be a linen closet, but it has turned into the Cuisinart Closet due to all the appliances I've shoved in there-- food processor, rice cooker, blender, waffle iron, george foreman, tupperware stuff, paper plates-- the poor little 18 inch wide closet was filled up. So we cleaned it out, allocating all electrical appliances to our new shelves. "Why didn't we do this sooner?" Brad wondered aloud several times. We gazed at our handwork for a few minutes and then went off to relax.

I took a nice long bath with Aveeno bubble bath-- lavender and other yummy relaxing smells helped me take the worries of the day off my mind, and I had a great feeling of accomplishment. Around 9:30 we decided to watch Who's Line Is It Anyway, one of our favorite evening shows for it's lightheartedness, just before turning in for an early evening. We'd been up late Sunday night and up at 5 on Monday, so we were tired.

And then it happened.

About five minutes past ten we heard the most horrifiying crash as the two top shelves came out of the wall, anchors and all, and crashed to the floor.

Oh, it was just horrid.

The top shelf had my box-lid of precious vases, the forcing vases my dear friend Cornelia gave to me before she moved to Berlin, the bud vase Sandi gave me when first moved out on my own, the painted vase Kate gave me when she came for a visit once, the mint green vase my mom gave me that had the lid with the holes in it to help the flower-arranging-challenged... oh, I loved those vases. All broken.

The top shelf crashed down onto the second shelf, and then they both dove to the floor. Somewhere on those shelves was the waffle iron, george foreman, ice cream maker, and coffee grinder, among other things. Those are all ok, except for the lid for the ice cream maker-- that's broken. Oh, and the crock pot broke-- not the glass lid, but the ceramic crock insert-- shattered.

What a mess. Just a horrible mess. Glass everywhere-- I stepped in it barefoot and then instinctively wiped the sole of that foot across my other foot, drawing blood. We just stared in horror until it was finished falling.

Oh, and did I mention we had about four gallons of paint up there? Remember the gold hallway color we didn't like? Two whole gallons of that. Four quarts of varying khakis we didn't use. The leftover bathroom paint-- our 10th and final khaki. The leftover green from the guest suite. Thankfully, the leftover paint and the quarts didn't open, except for one quart of khaki which splatter-painted the laundry room door. Very 80's chic. But the two whole gallons of yellow paint opened and blanketed the floor with a lovely puddle of buttercream.

Brad ran to get a trash can from the garage to put all the glass in. A minute after he set it down an inch-long fat roach crawled into the mess to add his two cents. A quick whammo with my shoe took care of him quickly, but seriously, did we need to add a roach to the mix? I take comfort from the fact that he came from outside and wasn't hiding inside somewhere, at least.

I'll spare you the details of the cleanup. In short, we squeegeed the paint into a dustpan and then into a little trashcan that is now full of paint and glass shards. We then scrubbed the floor to get the dried bits out of the nooks and crannies of the linoleum's texture. Last we lifted up the clothes dryer to get the last puddle of paint out from under it.

Oh, what a night. It all ended around 12:30 p.m. I said a lot of bad words, I'm afraid. But they were all warranted, I assure you.

I think we're in a bit of a rough patch these days. Please be praying for us.

Monday report.

Oh, what a heck of a week.

Brad got a new client last week-- that's the good news. And they were really nice to him-- that's more good news (other clients have varied from annoyed that they have to use his services to downright nasty). The bad news is that he has been working his fingers to the bone preparing for each day. Work eight hours, come home, work a bunch more to prepare for the next day. It's a big confidence builder as he's taking them through a conversion from quickbooks to Master Builder-- a significant, multi-step process and he has to be on his toes. So far he's enjoying it and is getting more confident by the minute, I guess. But I didn't get to play with him at all last week, and I've grown accustomed to him being free in the evenings to eat dinner with me, talk with me, be my friend. Now I know what it feels like to be married to me-as-a-teacher, I think. Not so fun.

The week was crazy busy as I said, but the weekend was wonderful. I secretly hired a neighborhood guy who has a mowing business to mow the yard on Friday so Brad could have a Saturday morning to himself. :) I love surprising him! Saturday morning I got a hair-chop-- it's reallllllly short, shorter than I wanted, but it will grow, right? We went to Home Depot in the late morning to pick up some supplies for shelves in the laundry room-- we have one shelf, but it's overflowing with stuff so we got enough for three shelves. Then we took naps and got ready for our fun evening Brad planned.

There's a store down in Naples near one of Brad's lunch places-- he has a client down there every Monday so he knows some fun lunch places. Near one of the lunch places he spotted a boutique full of gifty things and he wanted to take me there. So we went there first, and he was right! I loved it-- fun things you can only find in one-of-a-kind shops-- I love that. We bought some earrings for Brad's mom's birthday and then headed to dinner. We finally got to go to the Melting Pot, and it was soooooooo good. We started with the Swiss cheese fondue-- a little bitter because of all of the wine, but good anyway. Then we had broth fondue with incredible meats-- sirloin, tenderloin, chicken, salmon, and black-tailed shrimp, and a plate of veggies as well. Divine, and at such a nice leisurely pace. Then we had the smores chocolate fondue-- delish as well. The whole night was just wonderful and fun-- a much needed time to reconnect after a nutty week. I really missed my husband!

Sunday we tried a new church- the Vineyard in Naples. It's forever away, but it was a decent church and the pastor even mentioned the word "she"! Ok, I'm exaggerating. Our current church doesn't hate women, but it was just really refreshing when the pastor said something like, "...and that's the role he will have to take as a pastor, or her." So the grammar wasn't great, but the heart was there. It really felt like a breath of fresh air. Ahh. We're going to try the Cape Coral Vineyard again (we tried it once, but it was kid sunday) and then we'll figure out what we're going to do about a church home.

Last night we spent time getting ready for the week-- Brad prepping for the conversion and some classes he'll be working through with the client, and I worked on the display for my latest venture at work. Last year I went to the new teacher orientation for Lee County as a teacher-- there were sessions all day broken up with breaks and meals where teachers milled around booths set up by banks, credit unions, etc. I got the bright idea for Eagle Bay (our company) to advertise there, but it was only a for-sure thing as of last Monday. So I threw together a display and was there all day today-- 6:30 a.m. for set up till about 2:30. I'll be back tomorrow and Wednesday handing out pens and business cards and drumming up business. It's really fun-- I love projects.

That's all for now. I can't think of anything else exciting to tell. Love to you, friend!

This Means War.

So after being slightly depressed last week-- out of nowhere and about nothing in general, and I'm fine now after Brad prayed for me-- and having a migraine all weekend, and being beat up at church, and getting in a rather large fight with Brad where it just seemed the words we were both using were in different languages, I finally figured out, thanks to some help from my wise sister, that perhaps The Enemy isn't so happy with what we're doing in our ministry. Oh, and Brad woke up extra early this morning to get some work done for his new client (which went quite well yesterday, praise God!)-- and his computer, which was working just fine yesterday, is now not booting up correctly. He spent a few hours, frustrated, trying to coax some rationality out of it, but it refused. The Enemy is creative and persistent-- getting at our minds, bodies, relationship, tools, you name it. #$%^&* enemy.

We're gearing up for a Vineyard-style prayer training in our small group next Wednesday-- nothing scary or snake-charming for my non-Vineyardite readers-- just introducing people to an experiential relationship with the Holy Spirit-- one where real physical and emotional healing happens and people learn to hear God speak to them. I don't remember life before my first tangible experience with God, so I forget how big a deal this can be. I didn't realize what I was in for!

So please, my dearest friends and relatives, please be praying for angels to be all around us, for protection for our health, our marriage, our work, our minds, and our souls. We desperately need you on our team-- it's all out war. On a positive note, all this attack gives me confidence that the Holy Spirit will show up next week-- could be really fun!

A Case of the Mondays

Well, we didn't get any painting done this weekend. We were about to start when I realized that I was realllly tired and feeling like I'm coming down with something in my sinuses. So I spent the day on the couch. By evening my sinuses were fine, but my limbs were realllly heavy and achy, and I had a realllly bad headache. The headache woke me up a few times during the night and was still there in the morning, so I skipped church while Brad had to go play bass. I stayed on the couch all day except to make brownies for the small group leaders' bbq in the evening. They were dang good brownies-- graham cracker crust with brownie batter on top, baked normally. Then I put mini marshmallows all over it and broiled them a few seconds until they were browned. Smores!

The small group leaders' bbq was horrid beyond horrid. I am NOT a quiet and submissive woman and I expect to be allowed to speak when it is my turn. Instead, the men all looked at Brad to talk. ARGH! That's just part of the horridness that was last night. I'll spare you the rest. The moral of the story is we're looking for another church next week. No idea what ramifications that will have on our small group-- not looking that far ahead yet. It's just dreadful the way men behave in the church, and I absolutely won't subject myself to it. No way in hell.

Today I'm tired from a late night of debriefing with my sister-- thank you LORD for a wonderful sister! Mom and Steph both comforted my beat-up heart and validated me, which was what I needed. Tonight is date night but Brad has work to do, so I'll get to sew a bit.

And this fun thing happened this morning. It sounded like a really fat man fell onto our roof here at work.

Blog Scrapbook

Has anyone thought of that yet? Or did I just have one of the three original thoughts I'll ever have in my lifetime? (I heard that in high school, I think. We only get three original thoughts. Everything else we think has already been thought of. ) I'm not a scrapbooker-- I used to be, but I just gave up. I'd rather paint with broad strokes, like a room, or sew, or cook something. Hats off to you diligent scrappers. But instead I have this blog, and I'd like something to show for it. The day will come when I have to pay per post or something horrid like that, so I'd like to turn my posts into scrapbook pages. Like a photo book from Snapfish or something. Anyone know if there's a place you can have your blog bound into a book? If not, I just found my new business.

How I thought of that was this: we got back in town a week ago from our lovely weekend up north, where things are as they should be. We left on Friday evening and were taken to the airport by Rico and little almost-two Makena. Kena sang to me much of the way, a mixture of Jesus Loves me, Twinkle Twinkle, and the ABC's. The mix was cute-- a medley of sorts, sung Buckwheat style: "Jedud lub me dih ny no, how I wawa wa you ah." It's something really amazing to hear a toddler sing that Jesus loves her. Has she any idea what she's singing? Probably not. But will it stay in her mind the rest of her life? I hope so. It was a sweet send off.

We flew into O'Hare on USA3000, sitting in the exit row, each on an aisle. The delightful gentleman behind my seat decided to get schnockered pre-flight, so the aroma of alcohol filled the oh-so-fresh air which was also contributed to on a bi-minute basis by The Cougher. This poor guy coughed every other minute for three hours. His throat must be so sore! I wanted to ask him as we de-planed what his diagnosis was, just to save myself some time-- I figured both Brad and I would be sick the next day. Also, toward the end of the flight, Mr. Schnockered behind me apparently felt the need for a ciggy and came back from the lavatory smelling like smoke. The flight attendant (bless you, Jessie, wherever you are!) came over and confronted him and of course he denied it. So we didn't get to see any marshalls or anything-- probably for the best.

Steph picked us up from the airport in her rental car-- a black Mercedes sporty little number. She looked so Lake Forest High Schooler in it, with her perfect brunette ponytail and fancy car. She took us to Mom's place where we all crashed for the night.

Saturday morning we went out for bagels and muffins at Bagels by the Book in Libertyville. Their bagels are so soft and chewy instead of hard and dense, and I like them the best of any I've had. I got a chocolate chip, toasted with peanut butter. Yum. Brad enjoyed his banana nut muffin and we all enjoyed the 75 degree breakfast weather on Mom's outdoor seating area.

We hung around a bit at Mom's and then headed off to Shanel and Ivan's place. Driving up Sheridan Road was like drinking lilacs. (No wonder I'm on the chunky side-- if something makes me happy, I liken it to food... hmmm.) Anyhoo, the big old houses on Sheridan are just beautiful, and the rustling of the maples was music I haven't heard in a while. We got to S & I's around noon where we got a tour of their gorgeous old mission-style home. It's just something to behold. The built-ins and molding are so... what's the word? Just magnificent. They are like punctuation in a paragraph-- the house would still stand without them, but they just define and decorate so beautifully. The house is from the 1920s and Shanel and Ivan have done a lot of work on it. The colors they have chosen are warm and cozy in places, cool and soothing in others-- all of it is just very very good. And then we met little Audrey Anne. What a beautiful doll she is! Ivan grilled up some of his gourmet burgers and we finished lunch with homemade tiramisu-- it was all wonderful. Best of all was time to chat and visit. I haven't hung out with Ivan lots and lots, but Shanel and I have been in small groups together for enough time to have some history, and I just loooooove being around her. She is one who oozes grace and truth at the same time all the time. She reminds me a lot of Margaret Grudem, my second "mother", another godly woman. They're both people I want to be like when I grow up-- bold, truth telling, not afraid to say the hard thing, yet gentle and nurturing at the same time. They both seem to really know who they are and what they're called to be-- it's just refreshing to be around them. While Shanel and I caught up, Brad and Ivan played a bit of World of Warcraft, the computer game they both like. And just before we left we got a tour of Shanel's garden. It was a wonderful time.

After lunch we went back to mom's to nap for a bit, and then we went to Evanston with Steph for some shopping and hang out time. We were looking for an anniversary present for me (long story-- Brad did not drop the ball for our anniversary) but didn't find anything, so we went to dinner at Flat Top Grill (YUM!) and then to watch Nacho Libre at Old Orchard (eh- wouldn't recommend it). It was a blast to hang out with Steph and I wish we had just sat around and talked instead of sitting in front of a movie screen for two hours. There's something about being with my sister that makes the world all right. I get to talk to her a few times a week, so that helps me, but when we get to hang out together, I just get so very happy! The older we get, the more I crave time with her.

Saturday night Steph took us to get our rental car at O'Hare. We knew we were in for a treat when as we walked in the door the manager of Budget was handing out ice-cream sandwiches to appease the crowd waiting in line. It was 10:30 p.m. and apparently all of the world was in need of a car at Budget. We waited for about 45 minutes and then left in our Pontiac Vibe. Don't buy one. You'll feel every single bump the road has to offer and then some.

Sunday morning we went to CHURCH!!!!! Oh, how I miss my church!!!! I cried nearly the whole time (also cried when I saw my sister, cried when we drove up Sheridan, cried at Shanel and Ivan's) as my soul was refreshed in amazing worship led by Bruce from Chile. I don't know Bruce well, but I do know that he is a gifted worship leader and is dating an amazing woman who will change the world. If you run into Renee, ask her for a lesson in communication. She tells a funny story about language differences-- Bruce being from Chile and Renee being from Skokie makes for laughs. :)

Church was wonderful-- the topic was why you should marry within your religion. Not really what I was desperate to hear, but it was quite interesting none the less. Steve brought up some great points that were good food for thought. And we got to see many of our dear friends, who all apparently had beautiful babies this year. After church we grabbed lunch (Brad at Chipotle, me at Pita Inn-- I loves me my hummus) and ate at Jamie and Aogu's house with Sean and Jeannie and their little one, Syler. Jamie and Aogu have the cutest 4 year old boy-- I think he's four-- who has great manners and very cute diction. Brad left the table at one point to use the bathroom, and Koji came up to me and asked, "Where's your friend? I want to go watch something. I want to watch Thomas the Tank Engine." So cute. Jamie says he hasn't grasped the whole marriage concept yet, so to him Brad is my friend. Works for me! And their newest treasure is Izumi, a little cherub who looks a lot like Jamie. (Koji is an Aogu mini-me. It's only fair that Jamie gets one, too.) We had a great time catching up, although since we both blog I don't feel terribly out of step. It was also great to see Sean and Jeannie and their little one Syler-- maybe close to two now? Syler looks just like Jeannie and has an adorable mop of curly hair. We also got to see him in the church service, reverently taking communion (maybe more like having a snack) with mom and dad. We were in a housegroup with Sean and Jeannie when they had Syler-- I still have pictures in my head of Jeannie, 9 months pregnant in her big white sweater. We prayed over that baby before and after his birth as he gave them lots of fits, and now he's all grown up and walking around-- just amazing.

Sunday afternoon we went to Old Orchard to take in some shopping. We went to Restoration Hardware where they have paint chips of colors we like, Pottery Barn, the Apple Store of course, and a few jewelry shops for me. I think we narrowed down what I want-- unfortunately it's tres expensivo. We'll be creative and find something around here.

Sunday night we went to dinner with Mom and Steph at Max and Erma's. Steph told us about a new connection she has- a high schooler at church who has colon problems and has an ostomy right now (for those of you who don't know, Steph had colitis and has dealt with this stuff extensively). We were all amazed at the story of what happened to this girl, and we're excited to see how God is going to use her to encourage this poor girl. As she told the story of what happened (I'll spare you-- it's horrible) Steph, in her usual fashion, cracked me up. There was a balloon man coming around making balloon animals for each table. He asked us what we'd like, expecting us to say "a dog" or "a monkey"-- and Steph answered, "A colon." I'm laughing out loud thinking about it. He wasn't quite sure what to do with that. So he made a heart. What a riot.

On Monday we had a little birthday party for Dad, who turned 60 July 10th! I emailed a few of his friends beforehand to see if they could join us. Everyone was out of town or busy except for Dad's friend Wally, who was a great sport. We met at Wildfire, which has the best filets in the whole world, and surprised Dad with balloons and party hats. We had a great meal together and celebrated Dad's birthday in style.

After lunch Brad and I went down to Evanston and got to spend a little while with Rich and Jenny, dear friends of ours, and see their newest addition Mariella. It was great to be with them-- just like old times. They had been out of town with The Huntington Group-- a bunch of friends who all went to Huntington College (now University) with Brad. They all get together every summer for a weekend in Indiana, and it just so happened that this was the weekend. Ah, timing. At least we got a quick visit in with them. Maybe when the weather turns colder Rich's Guatemalan blood will crave warmer climates and they'll sneak down here for a visit.

After seeing Rich and Jen we headed off to celebrate our anniversary at The Herrington Inn in Geneva, Illinois. The Herrington is a sweet hotel and spa on the Fox River, and we spent the first few nights of our honeymoon there, as well as our 6 month-iversary and 1st anniversary. We figured last year would be the last time we would go, but last year the bathtub wasn't clean so we asked them to clean it again, and they were so sorry for the inconvenience that they gave us a gift certificate for a significant portion of a night's stay. So we went back once more. It's just such a cute place, with fireplaces in every room and beautiful decorations. And Geneva is a quaint little town with lots of cute shops and restaurants. On Tuesday before we headed to the airport we walked down one of the main streets and stopped in a few shops. If ever in need of a relaxing weekend, head to Geneva.

And then we went to the airport and came back to Florida. We spent the rest of the week doing the same old same old, and then finally PAINTED!!!! On Friday night went to Restoration Hardware up in Sarasota-- only about an hour and ten minutes north-- and bought 8 gallons of paint. On Saturday we finally painted the master bathroom, and it looks grrrrreat! We love it, and it feels so good to have accomplished that!

This week's news-- Beth and Rico had their little girl! Joining Beth, Rico, and Makena (pronounced mah-KEN-na), is Makaya (mah-KAY-ah). Kaya was born on Tuesday around 1 p.m. weighing 8 pounds 11 ounces, 19 inches long (or 19 inches tall, if you're Jim and prefer things said that way). Beth is doing well and Kaya is just a doll. Our small group cancelled last night so we went to the hospital again to see her, and we got to hold her for a while. She's just beautiful!

I feel like I've been talking your ear off, so now I'm going to post some pictures.

On Sunday night (in Chicago) we drove around my old neighborhood. We found that the house I grew up in (I lived there from when I was 2 until 14) is for sale! We called the realtor and got a tour on Monday morning. It seems to have shrunk quite a bit since I was last in the house (16 years ago!). It was really fun to walk through and reminisce about what it looked like back when.

This is me in front of the crabapple tree at the old house. I have a picture of me in this pose when I was four or five, so we had to duplicate the picture.


Here's our birthday party at Wildfire!


And Dad blowing out his candle!

This is our guest bathroom nowadays. Ooo, ahhh.


This is the view from the front door of my office on Tuesday. I had the camera at work in anticipation of taking pictures of baby Kaya. It started POURING at around 2 p.m.-- it really looked like night time! I thought you might like to see it.


And this is our new master bathroom!!! OOOOOOOO, AHHHHH! Bless you, Restoration Hardware, for knowing just the right khaki color to offer!


And this is how our blue towels look against the khaki. We love it!


This is something I haven't told you about, I think. It's the closest thing to a pet we have in our house. It's a Roomba! On the recommendation of Ruth Putnam Whipple, we bought one and we loooooove it. It does a really good job on hard floors as well as carpet, except that on carpet you don't get neat vacuum lines, but that's fine with me! Brad likes to move it around using the remote control, and here he's driving it into the bathroom to clean up after painting.

A few days ago Brad woke up and saw a beautiful sight outside-- a rainbow! The mornings are beautiful anyway, especially in the summer when the clouds are extra-dramatic.


The rainbow!


And the dramatic clouds-- view from our driveway!

Drama, drama

So we've been painting. A lot. It's been the only real drama in our lives, thank God. But what a pain it is to find the right color! As I type that I think, man, my priorities are messed up. This should be a fun adventure. But my impatience has taken over and ruined the fun, I fear.

We were successful with the guest room. The green is barely noticeable without looking at the white ceiling or trim. But it is there, and I am just in love with it. It goes just perfectly with my yellow and pink and green cabbage rose sheets from The Company Store. Feminine, beautiful, and calm.



And then last weekend I painted the hallway, but I really think it's too dark and gold-y. We went to Lowe's on Monday and picked out two more creams which you can see at the end of the hall-- but I don't love either of them.


And then there's the bathroom. We've been through eight khakis. The first three were not quite right-- too gray, too yellow, too... maybelline-makeup-looking. So we picked a different color and bought a gallon. Muuuuuuuch too pink. But I painted a bunch of it because I realllly wanted to like it. Then at Lowe's we picked out four more khakis. Nuh uh. Too white, too pink, much too gray, and one possibility, but not in love.


Then we picked Clay Beige out of a Pottery Barn Bedrooms book (they tell their paint colors in the back of the book) and I think we might stick with it. I really like it.

It's the big patch in the middle. We also tried out three more creams from Benjamin Moore, and I like the one on the right, but it's a little pinky.

So after all of this-- so much time and money wasted, eek!-- we think we might just go to Restoration Hardware in Sarasota and pick up their paint. They have three creams, three khakis, three blues, etc. Not lots of choices, and I like their stuff.

I'm a bit embarrassed that this has been such a drama for us! It's not earth shattering, it's not hurting me or anyone else. I just have a bad case of the impatients, I think.

Well, I need to go. It's 11:15 p.m. and Design Inc is on HGTV-- love that show, but I've seen this one before and I really need to go pack. We leave tomorrow night at 7 p.m. for our fun trip home for a long weekend!!!!

Oh- but one more quick story. Brad didn't grow up with brothers. Neither did I. So who was to teach us how to set off fireworks??? I remember my cousins doing it on Seabrook Beach in New Hampshire, and nearly every year someone got hurt. So I wasn't thrilled when Brad said he wanted to buy some fireworks and set them off. But heck, he values his fingers so I trusted he'd be relatively safe about it. He found a fun package of treasures at the fireworks tent around the corner.


We went outside this evening with the intent to set off only one or two, but who can stop at one or two?




After the one or two Brad ran back inside to get the rest of the package. We set off nearly all of them except for a few we've saved for the 4th.

Now we can say we've set off fireworks! And we have all of our fingers!

Feeling listless-- er, list-ful

I think it was Jenny Wug who turned me on to Redbook Magazine. It's not necessarily categorized as classic literature, but it's terribly enjoyable, writes with the assumption the reader is married (instead of "how to score with ten guys this weekend!"), and has lots of lists and statistics. And you know how I lurve lists. So every month I get treated to a few lists-- things I just "must" have, things I don't know about the male psyche, outfits I could make with just three simple wardrobe pieces, etc. And they also give lots of website sources--or am I confusing that part with Country Living? I think I am. Country Living-- I could make a full time job out of visiting all of their listed website sources. Maybe I'll share some with you sometime. You'd like them, if you're into antiquing and traveling and cooking, etc. Anyway, love those lists in Redbook.

So I'm feeling listy, partially because I'm really tired from this weekend, really want to post today for you, dear readers, but don't have the creativity to tell all the gory details story-style, and partially because the microwave just beeped and my dee-lish Lemon Chicken entree from Lean Cuisine is ready.

List Number One: Things That Have Gone Right Lately:

-- Fun times with my husband. We had such a ball at Lowes last night-- got great help from a guy as we tried to pick out a weed-eater, looked at paint samples (more on that later), and brainstormed about how to inexpensively put up cupboards in the laundry room to alleviate the mess that is the Cuisinart closet. (Don't try to get the blender out without wearing closed-toe shoes. Yeouch.) How is it that we can have a blast at Steak and Shake, even with bad service? Or just watching tv together? He's just the most fun. (Why did we need to go shopping for a weedeater, you ask, after Brad bought a new one last week? Well, after he fired it up, the cooling fan blade inside began chipping off, throwing metal blade parts out like shrapnel. Not recommended.)

-- Fun times with our community group from church. There are four couples, including us, and it's turning out to be just grrrreat! We ask deep questions, have challenging conversations, and connect easily. I'm so thankful for these budding friendships and for the work I see God doing in each couple already. SO much fun!

-- A sister in one piece. After being hit by a semi last week, then in a fender bender in the rental car, then told that her car was totalled, she's had a rough time. I'm so thankful she's not hurt or worse, and that she is surviving the trauma and drama that is car stuff with grace.

-- A trip coming up! We're going home this weekend for a long weekend. I've been pining for the north-- after receiving sexist email forwards from clients, (who thinks that's appropriate??? E-VOLVE, people! Women are your equals!), dealing with "Christians" everywhere I go (including the jerk who thought it was appropriate to cut me off last week, give me the finger, and then nearly run me off the road-- if you have a fish on your car, live like it. Otherwise, just stop with the fakey Baptist talk), and being HOT, I'm just dying for the north. Plus, I miss the shopping (see below). I mentioned yesterday how excited I was go to home this weekend. Brad replied, "But our home is heeeeere now." "Oh, my house is here now, but I will always only feel at home in the city, especially in Chicago," I said. I just miss it so darn much.

-- Great sermon at church. I have my issues with our church, but I tell you, the sermons are really meaty and applicable. I'm trying to take notes sometimes to focus my thoughts, and when I leave with notes I find I have like ten things to chew on during the week. Really great stuff.

-- Cool find at the auction on Saturday-- a 1974 set of Better Homes and Gardens Encyclopedia of cooking... 19 of the 20 volumes (half inch thick) for..... ONE BUCK. (more on the auction later)

-- A cleaned-out freezer. I now know we have lots of burgers, a few frozen pizzas, and enough to keep us fed for a while, if I get creative. (Pork chops with onions, anyone?)

-- A terribly sweet new mirror in the guest bathroom. I'm in love. It really makes me swoon.

-- A baby coming any day-- not ours, sillies. (And don't ask until Brad's done with grad school in three years. You heard me.) Bethany and Rico are due any day now-- actually, I think she technically has a few weeks, but her semi-regular contractions are leading us to believe otherwise. A new baby!!!!

-- Finished purses. I finished my mom's and sister's purses last night, and I'm proud of them. Can't wait to give them to their new owners.

-- One car that is working well. Mostly.

-- A house that is standing. Ugly inside, but standing. (more on that later)


And now, things that are going wrong:

-- Paint. I worked sooo hard on Saturday night while Brad was at a racecar movie with the drummer from the band. I painted the hallway and entryway, taped, trimmed, covered the white spots... and now I don't like the color. It's the same color that my mother in law has in her hallway and I love it there. But it looks muuuuch too gold in our house, and if it's going to be in the hall, entry, great room, and kitchen, it has to not be too gold. I'm mad to have wasted $80 on the paint, and I'm mad to have worked so hard and have to do it over. Argh!

-- Paint again. Tried to paint the master bathroom. Again, don't like the color. Looks great on the swatch, but pink on the walls. We were going for khaki. Just. Mad. Actually, more like disappointed. I've so been looking forward to painting and making everything pretty, and the green in the guest suite is so beautiful. We will press on.

-- Our anniversary. We celebrated two years on Tuesday. Two years! Can't believe it has been that long!! I still feel like a newlywed, though I can't remember life before Brad very well. So on Tuesday we had plans to go down to Naples. We had a gift card from our wedding leftover-- for Pottery Barn! And they don't deduct those monthly fees, so we didn't mind waiting for something special to buy or some special occasion. What's more fun than shopping on your anniversary??? So we planned to go down to Naples where the only Pottery Barn is, for like 100 miles or more, and then we had reservations for fondue at The Melting Pot. Brad picked me up from work around 5 and we headed south. We realized that dinner was two hours away and our bellies were hungry, so we stopped on the way at Gatsby's Pizza, our favorite pizza place, for a personal pizza. It's only four little pieces, so our waitress asked us what was up. We told her our plans and then went on our way with her congratulations. But before we left, we saw on the tv at the bar that there were severe storms over Marco, moving toward Naples. And as we drove toward Naples, you would have thought we were driving to our doom. The sky was just black as anything and there was lightning everywhere. We made it to Pottery Barn and dashed from the parking lot to the mall just as the first raindrops hit. As we neared Pottery Barn we saw a sign on the door: closed for remodeling until August. 0 for 1, plans-speaking. So we went into Sharper Image for a look around, and then decided to go to Radio Shack, the most romantical place ever. Actually, the fun present I had Brad open a day early came with a European plug. Thanks, Amazon. So we thought we'd pick up a proper plug and then head to fondue early. We found the plug and went on our merry way... but as we neared the fondue place the storm worsened. When we arrived we noticed there weren't any lights on in the restaurant...or in the place next door... or the place next door to that... yep, power was out on the whole block. So we turned around and went back to Gatsby's for a full size pizza and romantic time watching Wheel of Fortune. Plans: 0 for 2. Spontanaety: 2 for 2 (Radio Shack and Gatsby's.) We went home and hooked up Brad's early present and grooved out to the music from Good Night and Good Luck. Despite the plans not working out well, we had a great time anyway.

-- Heat. I hate being hot. On Saturday the big antique store down the street from my office was having a clear-out-the-warehouse-auction. Fantastic, I thought. Just like old times on Western Avenue in Chicago-- we love auctions! And when we arrived at 10 am there were maybe 20 people there, which often means low prices. Yeah, the reason there were 10 people was that it was in the 90's outside, and the auction was OUTDOORS. In the sun. There was a tent set up for people to go stand under when the heat got to be too much, but it was a distance from the action so you'd miss what was going on if you were comfortable. We lasted for about an hour (pat me on the back!) and then left. We'll try again when the weather calms down. We should have known, when it was 85 at 7 a.m.

-- My Honda. The Oil-Consumption Test we performed last week confirmed our worst fears: my dear Honda Accord is sick in the engine. It's using 1.5 quarts of oil per 100 miles, which is too high to be good. So we don't know what to do. It's not under warranty, and if we chose to fix the engine we're looking at about $3500 at least. Plus, once you open an engine it's never the same, they say. So we might trade it in, and we might just drive it and keep oil on hand. Argh. We only bought it four months ago-- or less! And it only has 43,000 miles on it. I just love it to pieces. So sad.

-- That's about it. Oh, I just dropped lunch on the keyboard, so I better go.

Document Perfection Department

We got a letter from the Document Perfection Department of the IRS the other day. Apparently we made a gross error on our 2005 return and deserved a letter requesting proof of withholding. So I just checked it out--- I was off by sixteen friggin cents. It actually cost them more to send me a letter than the error was. Or however that sentence should be constructed. Document Perfection indeed. Talk about the right people for that job!

So I haven't posted in way too long.

Here's what we've been up to!

This past weekend was jam-packed with family time. We had our biweekly family night at our house-- grilled chicken sandwiches, chips, homemade salsa (more on that later), and Great Grandmother Bertha's recipe for Oatmeal Crispies cookies-- out of this world. I also tried to do suntea as I was missing my mom a lot, and she used to do suntea a lot. (Sun tea is when you stick some tea in a jar with water and sit it out in the sun to brew). But it started to rain before the tea got strong enough, and we didn't actually grill the chicken, we baked it. We all ate and sat around chatting until 10 p.m. or so! It was truly a cup-runneth-over time for me-- I love having people over, seeing them connect with each other and be comfortable. Brings me tons of joy. Oh, and besides the regulars, we also had Aunt Keekee and Cousin Drew in town for extra fun!

Saturday was more family time as the women of the family went to tea in Naples in honor of Bethany's second pregnancy. She didn't want a shower, so we went to a British tea room instead and had a lovely time eating finger sandwiches with cucumber, scones with Devon cream, and tea pastries. And the tea was something amazing. I bought a box of the Raspberry Rendezvous because it was just too good not to take home with me.

Oo- that's all for now. Brad's finished with the work he had to do tonight so I'm going to give him part of his anniversary present early. I did a good job with presents this time (I'm notoriously bad at buying presents for him) and I just can't wait any longer for him to open one of the boxes. And I'm not being suggestive here.

Love to you all-

K

Another Caption Me

Sorry for the lack of posts-- we've been busy, but I can't tell you really much of anything we've been doing. Little things here and there-- preparing for our second small group meeting this past Wednesday, cleaning up the house, running errands, etc. Nothing exciting, like I said.

This weekend we plan to paint the guest room and bathroom. We'll see how that goes.

Here's another Caption Me for all you creative types. Entertain me. I'm especially looking forward to what you come up with, Court.

What's hot, what's not

Lots of scattered things on my mind tonight, from the wonder of last night's small group meeting to the fabric sitting in the sack waiting to be sewn into a purse for my mom and sister. Here are some thoughts on the fly while the dinner is cooking. Typing keeps me from snacking.

Last night's small group meeting was fantastic. There were seven of us there-- MV's wife was working and couldn't make it. (I'll use initials to protect people from I-don't-know-what.) We started by introducing ourselves, nutshell of church background, family background, etc. Then we split up into couples (thanks for that fun idea, Rich and Jen, or Meg and Jim, or Sean and Jeannie. I forget who did that first!) and talked about five questions Brad and I had prepared. How did you get together? Describe your families of origin. What strengths from your families did you bring into your marriage? What challenges from your families have you overcome in your marriage? What challenges remain, or have cropped up lately?

We took 15 minutes to talk them over with our spouse and then came back together to share. What happened was *real* community-- people being honest and open, real and vulnerable, eager to know and be known. It was just rich. After everyone left I stared at the ottoman in the center of the room and in my mind it was covered with a big pile of all that had been said. The weight of MV's fear of having children, the weight of MJ's financial issues, the weight of SH's horrid family upbringing and denial that its effects linger (!), the sheer weight of all that had been said. I felt the weight of all that had been dumped, and felt responsible to honor that vulnerability and to somehow lead them through that big pile into freeeeeeeedom. Sweet freedom. I could see what lies on the other side for each person, and I so desperately want to take them there with my oh-so-vast wisdom. And pushing and shoving. But it must be God who takes their heart there. How do I help that happen???? (really, I'm asking!)

Other things on my mind:

What's HOT: seeing my first live armadillo on the side of the road. It's like seeing a live raccoon or possum. We all know they are alive at one point, but I only see armadillos on the side of the road, ahem, sleeping.

What's HOT: seeing the rainbow on the way home tonight amidst the gorgeous clouds and the storm.

What's HOT: getting to chat with my friend Sam today and learning a bit about his fun PhD topic-- something about mapping the genome of E. coli. And you capitalize the E, but not the coli.

What's HOT: getting my fix at Joann Fabrics tonight. Now that I have a sewing machine and I know how to use it, I'm hooked. As I walked the aisles of fabrics I had that bad commercial in my head of the little boy singing, "Baa baa black sheep have you any weed? Yes sir, yes sir, first hit's free." I am so addicted to sewing. But not in a weird sew-your-own-vests kind of way.

What's NOT: spending $43 to fill up my gas tank.

What's NOT: being so far away from my sister. We never get to talk. My mom and I get to talk almost daily, but Steph and I have just the wrong schedules.

What's NOT: not much else.

Have a great night, all.

Pretty in pink, and I'm no southerner

We had an adventure in southern culture on Monday.

We live near the main road that goes west into Fort Myers. Much of the land along the road is full of cows and waiting to be developed. Since it is in the works to be developed someday, the smart road workers created turnoffs to be used someday to go somewhere. For now these turnoffs are about 50 long, like little driveways off the main road that go to nowhere. On weekends you can find all sorts of goodies for sale on these turnoffs-- in the winter you can find plants, trees, bushes, etc., since the winter is planting season. No one asks where the seller got his goods- for all I know he horked them from a jobsite and is making some side cash. Or you can buy Florida strawberries-- they're beautiful, bright red, and beckon as you drive down the road. But they're really tart. Lately I've seen the Jerky man around quite a bit, advertising a selection of THE...WORLD'S...BEST...JERKY, as each sign says. Since it has gotten warmer I've seen nearly complete farmer's markets offering watermelons, "lopes", and Georgia peaches. All of these things tempt my Farmer's Market loving self to stop and give a dollar to the grassroots guy instead of The Man at super-chain-grocer. But none has tempted me more than Todd the Boiled Peanuts Man. Todd the Boiled Peanuts Man has his own truck. Todd the Boiled Peanuts Man has his own trailer, with a real printed sign (not hand painted!) that reads, "Boiled Peanuts Hand Made By Todd." Now up until Monday I've passed Todd without stopping, but Monday I was in an adventurous mood. Heck, I thought, I don't know what Boiled Peanuts are, but if they're $3 or two for $5, they must be good. How could you mess up peanuts?

So we stopped and parted with $5 (because two for $5, what a deal!) Todd reached into the big vats (he had two large kettle looking things on the trailer) and scooped out enough boiled peanuts to fill two 32-oz styrofoam cups. Hmph, I thought. Usually peanuts come in a bag or something. As he handed the bag to us he was careful to twist the top quite a few times, perhaps to seal in the peanutty goodness. I could see some drips in the bag. Hmph, I thought. Peanuts are usually dry. Hmph, I thought a second later as the twisted bag began to un-twist. Peanuts don't usually smell like stewed vegetables. I quickly twisted the top again to stop the gagging.

We decided in the two-minute trip home that the peanuts would not be coming into the house. Brad wasn't so keen on smelling up the garage, either, but since it was raining he conceded. I went inside to do some quick internet research on How To Eat Boiled Peanuts. What I found didn't encourage me. Boiled peanuts are green peanuts boiled in salt water for a while. Various comments online taught me that some people break open the shell and slurp the peanut and salt water out, while other people put the whole peanut in their mouth, break it open and then spit out the shell. Hmph. I've never slurped peanuts before. One other comment, apparently from a fellow Yankee, said something like this. "Boiled peanuts are an acquired taste. People said once you try it, you'll like it. Well, I don't think trying things is the answer. I tried them. I also tried a serious car accident, a hysterectomy, and a divorce, but trying them didn't make me want to do them again."

So we tried them. First of all, the smell is unforgettable. Think ashtray-left-out-in-the-rain, mixed with stewed vegetables-- lots of eau de carrot, some brussel sprout, some broccoli. Then the visual. Seriously, they look like little poops.

I broke one open, not willing to slurp. I tried to pick up a peanut but I squeezed it too hard and it split and fell on the floor. Brad and I both made a face and looked at each other, wondering if we were actually going to go through with it. Then, all of a sudden, Brad picked up the other peanut and popped it in his mouth. And then made a really bad face. "Oh, this is just bad," he said. "You have to try it." I have to try it? With that glowing review how could I refuse? I tried it, and then we ran inside to get a frozen mini Twix to get the taste out of our mouth. And a second Twix.


After we recovered from the vileness, we decided that the poops were not going to sit in our garage for two days until trash day. Instead they were going to live in our Secondary Storage Facility, otherwise known as the vacant lot across the street. That's me giving them a little flying lesson.


On a happier note, later last night I finally made a purse! The stiffener worked great, but I couldn't get the zipper to work out. Since I don't have a pattern I'm just making it up as I go along, and unlike this fine computer, I can't easily go back and insert a step without undoing a lot of tedious stitches. So the first purse went in El Garbagio. I felt wasteful until Mom reminded me that it was a $7 lesson, not $7 wasted. Here is my little pink wonder. The print reminds me of the peonies that I love so dearly.


I even lined it in pink fabric-- so cute-- and put in two pockets. One for sunglasses and keys, one for a cell phone. I need to work on the location of the pockets, though. They're a little too far down.



That's all for now! Tomorrow is our first small group meeting at our house. I'm excited!

We're your biggest fan

It's the weekend again, and again we've been busy. Friday night was family night and it was little Chase's fourth birthday party! We brought the grill over to Jeff and Shelley's and grilled burgers and hot dogs and had a great dinner that Shelley arranged. The neighborhood kids came over shortly after dinner-- the three kids from next door 13 years old, 9, and 6, the triplets from down the street - 6 i think, and a little girl who has just moved in and doesn't speak a lot of English. These in addition to Bethany (6), Chase (4), and Kena (almost 2) made for a riotous time. It was fantastic impetus to refill my birth control prescription. Sorry Mom.

The neighborhood kids were relatively well behaved except for one little manipulative triplet who kept trying to talk Chase into letting him play with the awesome remote control car we gave Chase. He threatened not to be his friend anymore if Chase didn't hand it over. Argh. Where do kids learn to be so mean? Chase has a really giving, sweet spirit and would share if it wasn't the first three minutes of owning the thing on his own birthday!!! Brad promptly took the car away while Ralph whispered to Chase that they'll get it back out when the other kids are gone.

And speaking of the car, the thing is sweet. Brad got a great deal on it-- so good that he bought one for himself. And we got to play with it for a bit on Friday night before heading to the party. It has blue lights underneath, headlights and everything. You can make it go forward and backward and turn right and left. Brad worked out a few tricks with it to make it spin around, etc., so he taught me how to do that and we had more fun than it sounds like on paper.

Below is the reason we had to leave Jeff and Shelley's. They have a sweet dog, Lucy, who loves to get her fur in my eyes somehow. The other day I was wearing shorts and had to leave because my legs got welts from sitting on the couch. I am so dang allergic to pets it's ridiculous. And Shelley and Jeff keep the house superduper clean. I don't fault them in the least. If it's an allergen, it WILL find my eyes.


Saturday was work day over at Beth and Rico's new house!!! They finally got to close and move in!!! It was supposed to be finished in January, so actually getting to move in was cause for celebration. We spent Saturday installing SIX ceiling fans and three sets of blinds. We're pros at ceiling fans now and we really enjoy working together and have no conflict except when Brad refuses to turn off the electricity. He claims he's impervious to it, but when he says "That was a good one!" I know better and get scared. Men and their Superman ideas. :)

Before we went to the new house we stopped to pick up some breakfast for the gang. We wanted to go to Dunkin Donuts or something like that-- there's a new Dunkin opening near the Walmart, but it wasn't open yet. So we stopped at the only other bakery Google Local found for us-- a Cuban bakery next door to Papa John's that I'd been wanting to try out anyway. So we stopped in there and picked up a few pastries. It's a cute mom and pop place where seldom is heard an English word, but the workers are friendly all day. Our choices were puffed pastry with red guava jelly, puffed pastry with guave and cheese, puffed pastry with cheese, puffed pastry with coconut, or puffed pastry with "meat". We got a few of the first three (no meat for us) and a coconut one and then stopped by Publix grocery to get some standard glazed donuts for the less, ahem, adventurous among us. Turns out the glazed were a big hit as guava is just kind of weird. Pretty tasty, but still weird. It was fun to try a new place, though.

Saturday night we went to PF Changs down in Naples where we met up with Kubby and Karina. Kubby (Jacob) is the drummer in the band at church and he and Brad have hit it off (and have received numerous compliments about how good they sound together!). We had Kubby and Karina over to our house for dinner a few months back when they were dating, and now they're engaged! They're a great couple with God's fingerprints all over them, and we loved going out with them to celebrate their engagement. Afterward we went over and saw their new apartment which Kubby will live in until the wedding in October. It was fun to remember our first place and the exciting firsts surrounding it-- first shopping trip, first purchases, decorating decisions, etc.

Today we went to the early service as we knew our neighbors would be going as well. One really great thing about Summit is its outreach focus-- that's been a good nudge for us. Brad invited our neighbor a few weeks back and he said he was interested, that there are many names for the same god, and he's interested in pursuing it. We weren't sure if we'd see him and the family at church any time, but he came by yesterday to let us know he'd be there today! And there all five of them were! He and his wife have three very well-behaved and respectful kids-- 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade. They're really nice people and we're glad to get to know them. Anyhow, wouldn't you know, the first week they come to a new church, the sermon is on the wickedness of the heart. Oh dear, I thought. This is definitely NOT unchurched-person-friendly. But I was wrong! Not only did Jordan do an amazing job with the topic, God showed up and touched our neighbor's heart! Afterward we got to talk with them, and Andy said he was moved to tears during worship, that he really liked it and that they'd be back! And next Sunday is Porn Sunday, said Jordan, where we'll talk about the roots and fruit of a lustful heart. I'm thrilled they're talking about it, especially after the Dateline Child Pornography stings here in Fort Myers in the last few weeks. I'm glad that they're catching people who need to be accountable for their actions, but the shaming that goes on is just dreadful and counterproductive. We watched one week of Dateline and it was all I could handle! I kept thinking, these poor men need God's love and grace to heal their hearts, not the world's shame and guilt! Don't get me started on that one. Anyway, I'm just thrilled that God's working in the heart of our neighbors and that we get to be used in that work.

This afternoon we went back over to the new house to finish the blinds and then we came home and had leftovers (when making taco salad make sure you heat the taco meat all the way up past lukewarm before adding it to the lettuce, because there's no going back) that were eh and watched meaningful, er, stupid television about the most shocking celebrity breakups. Then we went outside to scrub down the metal table we sanded a few weeks back. While we were out there we saw a bit of lightning off in the distance. The clouds this morning looked like summer skies here-- the winter skies are clear and blue with scant clouds, but the summer skies have lots of clouds and are dramatic and just breathtaking all day long. We had a summer sky this morning, with one little raincloud off in the distance dropping a bunch of rain. Tonight the sky was still cloudy here and there, and the lightning began around 8:30 p.m. Brad and I pulled out our camp chairs and sat on the driveway watching the show for about two hours. It was beyond magnificent. The temperature was about 75 with not much breeze, and there was lightning going off about 3/4 of the way around us-- in front, on the east, on the south, and a little on the south west. About 15 minutes ago it started sprinkling so we came in. What an amazing time we had out there watching the power of the lightning bolts-- the calm of living in a slightly rural area with no light or sound pollution, perfect temperature-- it was the perfect ending to the weekend.

And we get a bonus day! Tomorrow we're going to Sears to use some gift cards Brad has stashed from birthday and Christmas. We also hope to paint that table and get it done so I can have a desk in the office.

Here's a picture of a sunset we took the other day from our driveway. The summer skies here are just unbeatable. Come see for yourself someday.


Hope your Memorial Day is restful and fun!

One hour later...

Just got cleaned up. LOVE the new maid in the shower-- we bought one of those gadgets they're marketing now, where you hang the thing from the showerhead and hit the button, and it sprays the whole shower with cleaning mist. LOVE it. I scrubbed that shower down-- it's like 5 by 5 feet!-- two Sundays ago and was exhausted the rest of the day. Call me a sucker, but the marketing worked for me. And the thing works! The shower is still sparkly clean!

I promised some pictures a while ago, and I'm behind. Here are some pix. This first two are of the Mother's Day dinner table.



Being the aunt and uncle we are, we keep an eye out for fun things for the nieces and nephew. We found these fun plastic trays and sippy cups at Walmart for about a dollar apiece. Each kid has his or her own color of tray and bug sippy cup thing. SO fun.


And here are two shots of the purse I made. The lighting is bad on one of the shots, but you can see the pocket inside. :)




It took a lot of rigging to get it to stand up straight. I haven't had a chance to make one with the new really stiff interfacing. Hopefully tonight unless I get the urge to paint the guest room.

And now for some really old pix-- a few weeks ago we went on a sunset cruise on our weekly date night. The cruises are about an hour and a half long, with free champagne and dolphin sightings. It was a wonderful way to spend an evening-- sooo relaxing.

We do more before noon than most people do all day...?

It's 11:20 a.m. on Saturday and already we've accomplished a fair bit. I woke up with some drive, feeling bad about all those peppers and onions I bought a week ago with the intention to cut up and freeze... they were still sitting in the fridge this morning, un-cut-up. It makes mealtime so much easier when I can reach in and get a handful of onion slices or pepper chunks instead of hauling out the knife and cutting board, etc. I also bought a pound of ground turkey with the intention to make breakfast sausage out of it... still sitting in the fridge. It had been in the freezed until Weds or so, so I know it's still good.

So I woke up, found a recipe for sausage patties, made nine of them from the pound of turkey while cutting up six peppers and ten onions! The peppers are sitting in the freezer on a cookie sheet, and the onions were cut up-- five diced, five sliced-- and are in freezer bags freezing. The sausage was made and all cooked up-- one pound of ground turkey, some sage, some ginger, salt, pepper, paprika, maybe some cayenne next time-- and all but two patties are in the fridge. I also made some pancakes and had me a really nice breakfast! The sausage came out well-- better than my last attempt a few years ago which turned out rather bland. The ginger really makes a big difference. I also cleaned up the kitchen, scoured the cooktop, and tried to get the smudges off the stainless steel fridge, to little avail. Not bad for 11:20 a.m.

But Brad wins the prize. Not only did he go out to the Hess station to get some milk after realizing that ours was bad, but he has mowed the yard and is presently trimming it all up. That's all well and good, but his greatest accomplishment was hitting a snake with the mower, protecting our home from the horrid slithery things. He came in for a quick sip between mowing and trimming to tell me about it-- said it was blue, black, and greenish, but couldn't tell me how big it had been. I guess the mower made quick work of chopping it up. Sorry to be vulgar, but oh, how I love chopped snakes over live ones. My husband, my hero.

Last night we were treated to a fantastic event-- a marathon of That 70's Show. We had thought about renting a movie but went home to see what was on the tube-- maybe a good Modern Marvels episode? Maybe some Mythbusters? Oh, imagine our joy as we found That 70's Show! This happened right about 7 p.m. Seven thirty brought another episode, which is normal-- it's always on from 7 to 8. But then at 8, another came one. And then another. And another. All episodes we hadn't seen before! (That's hard to find!) About 9:00 brother-in-law Jeff came over to borrow our ladder-- they're painting over there and need to reach the high places. He and Brad talked for a while about what we're going to do about a generator for the 3 families (ours, Jeff and Shelley, Beth and Rico) for the hurricane season. Tax-free week begins tomorrow morning-- no tax on hurricane supplies up to $1000. Turns out a decent sized one costs somewhere around $2500, including a proper connection and the ability to run an air conditioner. We might all pitch in, as much as I'd rather buy a new sofa or rug. I'll get over it, and I appreciate the guys' thoughtfulness.

We turned off the tv around 11 when the episodes started repeating themselves. Today we plan to head down to Bonita and drop off Brad's mother's day present to Chris (a shelf for their tv that he made), maybe some Gatsby's pizza, we're going to pick up some paint for the guest room and maybe prep for it tonight.

That's all for now. Hope your Saturday is just great.

Back o' my neck gettin' dirt and gritty...

Yes, it's hot in Florida, but what else is new? It has been in the high 80's to 90's for the past few weeks, and we're ok with that. But the Hot Time, Summer in the City moment of the week comes to us courtesy of Lennox, the manufacturer of the broken air conditioner outside my place of work. It went out yesterday around noon and the part isn't going to be here for 3 to 5 days. By the end of the day yesterday it was about 85 inside, and today it's just muggy. We're thankful to have this day of rain, which is soooo necessary, and it's also bringing down the temperature. But I pretty much need a full scuba setup to breathe in here. It's almost 1 p.m. and I'm leaving around 1. Everyone else has gone, and I'm just waiting for Brad to pick me up-- his car is being worked on for a strange noise it makes when the wheel is turned all the way. Still under warranty, thankfully, so I think our bank account hemorrage that we had with the Mercedes is over.

In other news, we had a smashing weekend. I've been making purses as I think I've mentioned before. Sewing and creating is just so darn satisfying for me! I've had a break from it (not voluntarily, just busy and cramped for space) since living in Baltimore, almost 4 years, and I'm loving having time to nurture this side of me. I'm looking up pictures of purses online, creating my own patterns, and then creating the bag from some cute chic fabric I got at Joann Fabrics. The first bag is much too floppy, so I took it in to the store and they introduced me to the world of interfacing-- stiffer fabric you iron onto other fabric to stiffen it. The first grade of stiffener didn't cut it, so I went back on Saturday to get the highest grade you can get, short of makeshift solutions (I did entertain the idea of inserting pieces of 3-ring-binder, cutting off the covers and using parts of those to keep the thing from flopping over.) I promise to post the picture I took of the floppy purse. I have it at home.

So on Saturday we got the stiffer interfacing, took care of some things around the house, and planned for Mothers Day at our house. We were all going to go out to brunch but there was some confusion as to who was going to spearhead that, so with no reservations made we volunteered to host. And it was magnificent. The menu was super easy-- roast in the crock pot with onion soup mix and cream of mushroom soup and carrot, mashed potatoes from the (gasp!) box with butter, garlic, sour cream, and cream cheese thrown in, spread into a 9 by 13 and sprinkled with paprika for eye-appeal, and green bean casserole with the mushrooms strained out! I love that casserole, but I hate mushrooms, so I did my best to pluck them out of the soup I put in with the roast. Did a decent job, but then I got smart and diluted the soup with the milk and strained it for the green bean casserole. Voila! Yummy taste, no fungus! We also had rolls and salad and Beth and Rico brought two delish pies for dessert. It was relatively easy, especially the potatoes from the box, and compliments abounded.

But the food wasn't all of the fun. We also set up the tables to be one long table in our living room, so everyone could sit together. When we all get together there are 8 adults and 3 kids-- who has a table big enough? So we all end up eating all over-- at the kitchen table, on the lanai, on the couch on tv trays, etc. Totally well and good, but for a special occasion, I really wanted us all to be at the table. So Brad scoured the big table and got the layers of dirt and dust off of it, brought it in, and then also brought over the kitchen table. We got out linen table cloths and napkins, two forks even, stemmed glasses, etc., and it was just a ball. I wanted Chris to feel honored and I think she did. It was a blast. And when everyone left Brad and I crashed for a long winter's nap.

On Saturday night we ran a marathon of errands-- to Joann to get the interfacing, also to Ada's, a natural grocery like Whole Foods that has a waterfall inside and coi pond, and on Saturdays has lots of things set out to try-- samples, I guess you'd call them. And a big ROOM of bulk foods- 25 kinds of granola, lots of rices, flours, nuts, sugars, coffees, you name it. And you can sample stuff in there, too! We'll be back. We also went to Bed Bath and Beyond and got some fun brown velvet pillows to go on the church pew we have in the living room. The pew is from my early days-- Mom and Dad got that when I was a wee one and it has been in their house ever since. Dad gave it to us when we moved down here and we love it. But it doesn't love our be-hinds. It's not so comfy, so we were thrilled to find perfectly sized cushions on sale for $10 apiece.

So that was our weekend, pretty much. Went to early church in order to get ready for lunch, and then napped for the afternoon. We ended the evening with some meaninful reflective time where we mulled over the problems of the world and solved most of them. Er, actually we watched the E! True Hollywood Story of Simon Cowell's life (judge from American Idol).

And one last thing- happy news from Jamie of Room In Roppongi- Jamie delivered a baby girl early Saturday morning! See a picture of squeezable Izumi on her blog!

What's My Caption, Round 2

Caption me, and take me in your arms, Caption me, I want your tender charms, 'Cause I'm lonely and I'm blue, I need you and your love too, come on and caption me!

(Click on it for better detail.)

Safe, but a little shaken and stirred

I'm sorry to say I don't have energy to tell more of the story, but the short version is that there were brushfires in Lehigh Acres this weekend, the worst ever. We were about 3 miles from the closest edge and had no damage whatsoever. Here are pictures we took as we drove around town on Saturday and Sunday. As of Monday morning 80% of the fires are out.

I came home from shopping on Saturday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. As I got closer to Lehigh I saw a huge cloud of smoke rising from the center of town. Here is the shot from our driveway. Brad and I decided to go get a better look.


We went about three miles east and stopped just short of the canal by Sunshine Boulevard. The smoke was thick and we saw flames across the street. If you look just below and to the left of the flagpole you can see some flames. But there were more fires, as was evident by the much larger cloud of smoke. We decided to head east to get to the other side of the fire.


As we headed east we came upon a restaurant that backs up to a canal. We saw active smoke behind the restaurant and checked it out. Behind the restaurant was about 50 feet of dry grass (we've been in a drought), then a 15 foot deep canal about 30 feet wide, then more grass, then a forest area. The trees in the forest were burning, and then the fire came forward toward us. The grass across the canal caught fire.


As the grass burned out the bushes behind became on fire and flared up. This is the view from the front seat of the car.


Shortly after, the fire jumped the canal and began burning the grass on our side. Within a few minutes the cops came and shooed us out of the parking lot.

I'll tell more later-- here are the rest of my pics for now.