This and That

HI!  Just a little bit of this and that on this last day of August (the unofficial last weekend of summer) BOO!

1) Where have I been, no where, but now I understand how hard this blogging stuff can be! (Sorry my 3 followers, I will try to do better)
2) I miss my sister-neighbor-friend!  She needs to return so I feel right in this world!
3) Football season is here!  I'm excited to watch the games and go tailgating, but that just means it's fall, and what follows fall, winter... 
4) I'm really bummed.  I just realized I don't have a vacation planned... I need to get on that.  I'm thinking something tropical, something that I need a passport for and has a beach waiting for me at the other end.  I will keep you posted!
5) My hubby and I just celebrated 5 years of marriage bliss! So that means we have been together for 15 years!  What! That is almost half of my life!  But SO looking forward to the next 15 years!
6) I need to find my homeowner-motivation.  I'm hoping now that we are coming into cooler days, I will get some stuff done around this place! My list just keeps getting longer and nothing is getting crossed off.  Maybe if I blog about my goals (better known as maintenance that needs to be done around the house)  I might just get them done.  Don't they say if you write out your "goals" they will get done? 
7) Work is REALLY busy lately.  But it has been good busy!  There are days I'm a little overwhelmed, but for the most part it is the prefect amount of busy to keep me motivated (At least I'm motivated somewhere!)
8) We just got our carpets cleaned and with that, we rearranged the house.  I think I like it...  I liked the other way better, but this new set up is growing on me.  The test will be when we have our group of friends over...  That will be the test!  (For the record this doesn't count as homeowner-motivation, I paid for someone to clean my carpets)
9) I just brought my first Christmas present of the year!  Those little ones are just so darn easy to buy for!
10) I've been working from home on Fridays all summer.  LOVE IT.  But it might be coming to an end...  This all started when my carpool buddy had a medical leave.  So to save gas money, my boss OK'd me to work from home 1 day a week, but the agreement was to end on Labor Day weekend.  Next Friday I have a meeting on site and my boss hasn't given me the thumbs up to continue, yet...

All right back to work!  Enjoy your last weekend (unofficially) of summer!

The Kiss

After 5 years I still remember this kiss.

Lettuce Necessities

This year I made an attempt to grow my own lettuce. My mom gave me the idea last year to plant it in my containers before I put flowers in them.  You can ideally start growing lettuce in mid-April in the Mitten state, where as one isn't quite brave enough to plant flowers yet, due to the chance of frost.  And it was a success!  I had quite the generous crop!  But it takes some tools to get your lettuce ready to consume. 

A must have tool for home grown lettuce is the salad spinner.  That is the best intervention ever!  Lettuce can get pretty dirty and needs to be washed a couple times. That thing makes it easy to soak and then spin dry!  However if all you have are strainers, those will work, just the spin dry processes because more of a pat dry processes...

And the final product!!

Is a yummy bowl of salad.  So what have we been having for dinner lately, grilled chicken salad, grilled steak salad, a little side salad with pork chops, and I've been having a salad for lunch every other day!  I've even gave some to the neighbor, and still took some to work for a pot luck!  I believe I will be doing this again next year! 

Not sure who said this, but it rings true in my world “Friends are the Bacon Bits in the Salad Bowl of Life.”
Well OK, maybe in my Hubby's salad, because to him a salad with no bacon is just a bowl of lettuce.  True, honey, so very true!

Vegas Baby!

Ah, the feeling of a good vacation.  A suitcase full of dirty clothes, a sunburn and an equal feeling of being relaxed and run down.  Yup, that's me!  Returning from 6 nights and 7 days out in the desert.  Destination Vegas was a mix of quality time with an old friend, being crazy with a soon to be newly-wed cousin and the Hubby enjoying his favorite pastime of, you guessed it, gambling!

We have an old friend that moved to Vegas a couple years ago, so to make the trip a bit cheaper, (what happened to cheap flights to Vegas?) we stay with her and her husband.  We flew out last year, that was when we met her husband for the first time and the two men hit it off immediately!  Tanner had lived in Vegas for 2 years and had never gambled, so Hubby had a great time showing him the ropes, and wouldn't you know it, beginners luck is a great thing.  However, for this trip, I think Tanner was more of Hubby's lucky charm, he can roll a mean hard 8!  Unfortunately we didn't come back millionaires. Only with some great laughs and memories with those two! I'll take that any day! I can't express enough thanks for the hospitality they showed us.  Stocked fridge, private pool, and even let us borrower the car so we could have a date on our own.  I hope they can make it out this summer so we can show them the same, plus it has been way to many years since Erin has been back in town.  Looking forward to back-roading and taking the boat out when they do come, just like the good old days.

As for the crazy cousin...  Wow, I'm too old to be "clubbing" or maybe it was me wearing the stilettos, or was it trying to keep up with 8 twenty-somethings, wow.  But it was quite the experience, nothing like "Hangover", but an experience that I'm glad I did.  And might have to do again, when the even younger cousin gets married...

So, I'll leave you with a picture of what Erin and I did the whole time.  Yup, that was laugh!  And maybe cry a time or two too...  But it was good to see an old friend.  Even thought it feels great to be back home!

Playing in the Dirt

That is what I've been doing for the past 2 1/2 weekends.  But I enjoy it.  I love the feeling of accomplishment after I've planted and clean up my flower beds.  I then could spend hours sitting on my pouch with a cold beverage and just gaze out at all my hard work.  Now the hard part, waiting for them to fill out the containers and beds.  But nothing that a little Miracle Grow can't help!

Ah, I think I might just have to jet set off somewhere while the Miracle Grow does it job! 

Mommy

My Mommy

A beautiful lady inside and out.  I hope one day, I can be as great of a mother she has been to me.  Knows a little bit about everything, and if she hasn't even done it, she will figure out a way to do it. 

The most recent fun she'd been having lately is that she thinks she is "Techie"...  Within the last few months, she has gotten a new
~ "Smart" phone and can text me (all the time!)
~ A new car (Ford Explorer) that she can talk to, call me from, ask about the weather, etc.  Sync is fun!
~ Joined Facebook!
~ And for her Birthday, my dad brought her the new Kindle Fire.  Um, can I get one! 
She now has more techie toys than me!

Happy Mother's day Mom, I hope you are reading this from your new Kindle!

Tid Bits

A little about me, right now

~ I have Poison Ivy and I think it's spreading...
~ I have learned to work 4 day hair, and it looks GOOD!
~ I don't have a real sister, just a best friend that I call my sister!
~ Vegas is in my near future and I can't wait, 4 days in the desert, OK!
~ I desperately need to take my cats to the vet, and then I just got the reminder I need to take my dogs, not looking forward to that bill...
~ I will be playing in the dirt again this weekend, hopefully without poison ivy lurking...
~ Tonight I get to hang with 2 of my really sweet, fun girls!
~ I normally car pool, except for the last few weeks.  It will be bitter sweet when my buddy returns...
~ I'm really liking how working from home feels!
~ I have a hand full of topics for the blog, just to lazy to write them out...
~ I should be working, and not typing this random list out.
~ When doing projects around the house, I (we) really need to learn to take before and after pictures!
~ I have way to much to do before I leave for Vegas.
~ And because you can't end on the 13th note, and because I have a doomsday calender (joke from a lady at work) There are only 227 days left until the end of the world. Live them to the fullest!