strawberry picking and some other stuff

1. i remember strawberry picking when i was a kid and wanted to share that experience with kaylee so that's what we did on monday.

2. went to a cute little farm in a nearby town with bff katie, sean, ben and lil' cameron. we even got to see +pet some of the animals. they had horses, turkeys, chickens/hens, bunnies and puppies.

3. afterwards i asked kaylee what she wanted to eat for lunch. with no hesitation she shouted "olive garden!" but i didn't want to drive from one end of town to the other so we came home.

4. yesterday my sister came by with her two girls and my other 3 nieces to play.

5. she ended up taking some of the girls + kaylee home with her.

6. so hamilton and i went and got him a new cell phone since his other phones stopped working. of course its just a "temporary" one because he wants a new iphone.

7. mike said we can both get one as long as our monthly bill is under a certain amount. [going to sell my old iphone to help with the cost]

8. so i've got some homework to do. want to see if we can lower our very expensive comcast bill.[we get cable,phone and internet through them]

9. then mike and i had a dinner at granite city.

10. then i got myself some birthday donuts for dessert. [used my birthday gift card. thanks michelle!!]

summer

this past weekend is what summer is all about:

boat riding

food eating

drinks drinking

going on a whim feeling

bonfires on the beach burning

stories sharing

football catching

dogs chasing

sandcastles building

cool rock finding

new people meeting

more food eating

and drinks drinking

mosquitoes biting

late night driving

sleeping in sleeping

life loving

impressed

1. i'm really impressed that kaylee drew all of these. she got this book for her birthday and she copied what she saw.

2. hamilton was the same way except with lego's. wonder if that has anything to do with him becoming an engineer?

3. finally got mike to agree on a small desk to add in the kitchen.

4. except this might take awhile since i have something specific in mind and now have to find it. [its a small table and chair]

5. disappointed in myself right now. haven't done anything on my to-do list with kaylee this summer.

6. or my to-do list in getting stuff organized so i can work on hamilton's scrapbooks. [i know school just got over but graduation will be here before i know it!]

7. mike's mom is driving mike's brother + girlfriend to gaitlinburg, tennessee as we speak for his graduation gift. they wanted to go river rafting and hiking. [he didn't want a huge party]

8. kaylee and i got invited and it was tempting but i didn't want to invade nick's space.

9. hamilton's curfew has been reduced to an earlier time this summer because of all the times he was naughty last summer. i'm impressed that he hasn't been giving me much grief about it. [knock on wood]

10. then again, there really isn't much to do around here.

random tuesday

hot box pizza using my hipstamatic app

1. thanks for all the anniversary love! we didn't do anything to celebrate. i think it means more doing something special on a normal day or on a whim.

2. i will have to post more about it though. it was such a fun day and people still speak about to this day.

3. after seeing nikole's sneak peak on design sponge via bonjour this morning been yearning hardcore for hardwood floors, painting and shopping for cool stuff.

4. till i started doing the bills. why do bills always ruin the fun?

5. while i don't usually get all geeky over gadgets or electronics [unless its photography related] loving the new iphone. sure does look purrdy!

6. ham won't use my current iphone because its 6 months old even though the phone he's using is my really old phone. [his broke awhile back]

7. called our local post office yesterday. in short, horrible customer service!

8. debating on going to wisconsin dells for a mini-cation. should stay home because that is one of the reasons for buying this house.

9. and i want to go someplace where i can hike and hit the beach. speaking from experience meowie [kayleeism for maui] is the perfect place to do both.

10. and i'm craving chocolate chip cookies again. [i haven't made any since my last craving for them. might have to to stop the cravings!]

we

1. met at a bar.

2. were both "wingmen".

3. dated for 3 years before he engaged [friendism] me.

{he asked my dad for my hand a week or two before]

4. sent out cook-out invitations.

5. went to florida with friends.

6. had one week to finalize everything.

7. surprised our guests when mike's uncle announced why they were really there.

8. loved hearing the ooo-'s, ahhh's and clapping while changing our clothes.

9. had hamilton be my best man while nick, mike's now 18 year old brother, was his.

10. are celebrating 7 years

i saved a chick-munk today

favorite photo of my friend christine taking total delight in licking the spoon full of dirt pudding. {photo via my friend michelle}

1. today was mike's friday off [he gets every other friday] so we went garage sale shopping looking for golf cart and fridge.

2. didn't find anything so we went to our local mall to find him some shorts. his 16 pairs isn't enough. in his defense he says he's going to goodwill some of them.

3. we hit the jackpot! he found 5 pairs of shorts, 2 dress shirts w/matching ties [hopefully for an interview soon. more on that later] and some new sneakers. everything but the sneakers were on sale. ON SALE! men's clothes are hardly ever ON SALE!

4. besides hair envy, i'm having photography envy- she's only 17 and so is she. and either one can date hamilton, they are both beautiful.

5. want to make a homemade striped t-shirt like these from here and of course here.

6. i want these tv cabinets that she found for $2! i would paint them white and green and use them to house kaylee's books in her bedroom.

7. wish this would be one of those nights hamilton comes home before curfew. mike runs a half marathon tomorrow which means we leave the house by 6:15am.

8. sunday mike's brother graduates high school.

9. while folding laundry on my bed, hamilton announces that our pesky cat, booah, has brought in a dead critter and is now playing with it. i run getting ready to be grossed out when mike chases him outside with it.

10. it was a chick-munk [kayleeism] and it was still alive! i screamed at booah to let it go but he was showing off and didn't let go till mike started chasing him. the chick-munk got away and ran up a tree while booah looked at me with disgust.

thursday already???

one of my favorite photos from saturday [i've got many]

1. currently hating blogger. it won't let me load up more than one photo

2. busy, crazy weekend. friday evening was spent in the kitchen and cleaning the house. saturday morning mike ran a 15k which he came in second in his age group.

3. saturday we had all of our favorite people over for a cookout. lots of food was eaten. it was the most delicious spread. [chicken, ribs, pasta salad, thyme potatoes with sausage, snicker apple salad and dirt pudding. others brought veggie pizza, corn on the cob, potato salad, lemon bites and wine]

4. kids had fun playing in the sprinklers while the adults chatted and/or played and/or watched a friendly game of corn-hole.

5. i got dizzy and sick spinning the kids around and still felt ill on sunday so we chilled till we got bored. had mike text some people to see if they wanted to come over and play corn hole instead some friends took pity and invited us over.

6. monday went over to my parents house for another cookout and got to see my dad's side of the family which we don't do enough. hopefully this will be the start of a new tradition.

7. made crunchy asian salad and bayou bourbon baked beans and mike said they got the most compliments.

8. monday night kaylee stayed the night at nana's house so mike and i decided to go out.

9. decided to get a small bite to eat then see a 8:40pm movie. though after mike's drink we decided warm-ups and comfy sweatshirt sounded better so we went home.

10. a true sign that we are getting old.