Our 20th Anniversary Weekend

Thanks to my parents, Cameron and I had Thursday through Sunday all to ourselves.  Our 20th wedding anniversary was Wednesday.  I went all out for supper.  We had taco salad! LOL  We actually didn't do anything Wednesday except exchange cards.  Thursday though, I took the girls to my parents to stay until Sunday.

Friday, Cameron and I first went downtown to the Midland Antique Mall.  A huge building full of vintage and antique goodies.  We had been there several years ago and I was really excited to go again.  I was planning on spending half the day there, but we didn't stay too long.  NO AIR CONDITIONING!  It was miserable inside.  There were only three other customers in the entire building.  We were there long enough to find the one thing I was hoping to find plus a couple of other small goodies.

After Cameron and I had enough of the "antique sauna" we went in search of lunch and a cold drink.  We went to Aesop's Table and shared an appetizer plate.  It was too hot to eat very much. 

Then we took a little road trip to Ft. Wayne, IN.  We drove through this little town called Berne, which was settled by the Swiss.  It was a neat little town which also has a lot of Amish people.  We saw one of the funniest things we had ever seen.  A McDonald's with a parking area for horses and buggies and we actually saw a young Amish couple with their newborn baby go into McDonald's!  We were cracking up.  Then we saw three buggies outside of the Pizza Hut.  I guess the Amish are branching out! 

Saturday we did more antiquing and some errands.  It was a perfect day except for one little blip.  We took our camera to a repair shop and they said it would cost more to fix it than replace it.  I might have had a tear in my eye.  It's a nice camera that we bought right before leaving for China.  I was really bummed.  Not too bummed to enjoy the rest of the day though!  We ate dinner at Asian Grill, where we both were looking forward to a cold Thai iced tea.  They were OUT!  So....we went on a search to find the ingredients to make our own.  We found the tea at Asia Mart!  We had looked for this tea before and not had any luck, so we were pretty excited.  Cameron made some when we got home and it was great!  Now we can have some whenever we want.

It was pretty strange going to church on Sunday morning without the girls!  We were ready to pick them up and bring them home.

They had a great time at their grandparents and playing with their cousins.  They fell asleep pretty fast tonight!

It was a great weekend to celebrate our 20 years of marriage.  Just hanging out together and running around eating and shopping.  Our favorite past times since our beginning! :)  I am so thankful for the husband that God has given me and the father he is to our girls.  Cameron is so much fun and is the most unselfish person in this house.  When I was a young girl in college, I had a mental list of the things I wanted in a husband, but how could I have known what would be important to me twenty years later?  God knew and he gave me just the right man. 

Gratitude list

336.  My husband
337.  My parents willingness to keep the girls
338.  God's watching over us while we were apart
339.  God's wonderful blessings in our marriage.

Next week it's major planning time for school.  I'm starting to get excited.

Summertime Gratitude

325.  Basil from our garden.  This year we have Thai Basil and regular (I don't remember the name) growing in the garden.  Yummy!  I mostly just use it to make pesto.  I could eat that stuff by the spoonfuls.  This is the first year we have grown Thai Basil.  So far I have only used it once, but it was good.  I Googled it and found this pasta recipe.  It was really good.  We will definitely be eating it again.

326.  Sunflowers.  Our easiest "crop".  We didn't even plant any this year.  They are all volunteers from past plantings.  It's fun to see which varieties come back and where they will pop up.  One is even taller than the back of the house!

327.  The gift of time.  Cameron is always willing to give me that gift whenever I need it.  And I know the girls like having him to themselves sometimes.

328.  Air conditioning!!  Oh mercy.  A whole week of  "High of 95, but will feel like 115."  I do not remember ever before taking almost cold showers, twice a day.  I think this is week is pretty much suppose to be more of the same.  Looking forward to October!

329.  Summer break.  We haven't really done anything exciting.  It has just been nice to hang out and not have all of the school things to do everyday.  In a couple of weeks or so, I'll be ready and excited to tackle another year.  Kate will be in Kindergarten this year! 

330.  Hearing "I love you mommy" from my almost 12 year old.

331.  Hearing "I'm glad Jesus gave me you for a mommy and not someone else" from Kate.  Can't believe I didn't cry over that one!  She has no idea yet of the depth of that statement.
332.  Being the mother of these two beautiful girls. 

333.  Once a week walk with a dear friend.  Nonstop talking. ;)

334.  The fact that the Boone County fair is free.  I have three family members who think we need to go three days in a row!  Although, we can't seem to go and not buy food, so I guess it's not really free.

335.  Swimming lessons ending on a good note.  It was not looking too good at the end of the first week, but Kate even asked to go down the slide the last day.  Something that had been making her cry the previous few days. 

If you are thinking her face has a look of sheer terror, you'd be right.  But last year there was screaming involved, so just a little terror was a big improvement.

See, she's fine!  And was even sad that lessons were over for the summer.

What We've Been Doing

What we've been doing during the second part of summer is....pretty much nothing!  And we are loving it.

Kate is mostly loving swim lessons, Callie has had all the time she wants to work on her creative pursuits and I have enjoyed reading books again.  For quite awhile my reading had been limited to blogs, email, etc., and school books with Callie.  It's been nice to have time (OK, make time) to read some real books!  My stack includes, The Opinionated Knitter, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers, and Mao's Last Dancer.  Actually, I've been listening to that one on CD and Callie has been reading the book.  Cameron brought the movie home one night from Red Box and so our curiosity was peaked.  We wanted to know how much of the movie was true and what all was left out.  I've really enjoyed listening to it.  The man who reads for the CD does a wonderful job.  It's an amazing story!  You should check it out.

"The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers" was highly recommended and I have enjoyed reading it so far.  There is a sort of book study going on at Elizabeth's blog that is really good.

I'm reading the "The Opinionated Knitter" mainly because the title was interesting and sometimes it's more relaxing to read about someone else doing something than it is to try to do it yourself.  In other words, I'm stuck in my knitting progress!  But I have help coming.
According to The Weather Channel, it was 96 degrees outside felt like 112 degrees when I started typing this.  It's too hot to do anything.  I don't even want to eat real food, much less cook it.  I'm sure I've never said that before! :)

Callie turned in her 4H project this week.  It turned out really good.  More on that next week.

Enjoy your Lord's Day!

Today.....

...is HOT!!  And humid!  Callie and I think it is not fair at all that we have to sit and watch Kate's swimming lessons.  There is some great restraint going on to keep us out of that pool!

...Callie turned in her 4H project.  At 7:30 AM!  That's a little early for this spoiled family.  She signed up for photography this year.  That girl is almost never without that camera (when your husband's name is Cameron, try typing camera w/o capitalizing and using an "o" at the end!) in her hand.  For this category, she had to turn in her poster and a judge critiqued it right there with her.  Callie handled it very well and did not seem to take any of the judges remarks personally.  Why doesn't she do that with me?  She did a really good job on her poster with very little help.

...there are only nine more days until Cameron and I will have a weekend together to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.  I will have been married half of my life on July 27th. 

...I took a long nap with Kate.  I couldn't even finish reading to her because my eyes would not stay open.  It's hard work sitting on the side of that pool! :)

...Cameron had an appointment at Einstein Bros. Bagels.  He did not come home empty handed.  I'm not a huge bagel fan, but I am a huge Everything Bagel fan.  Covered with cream cheese, YUM!  Callie is just a huge food fan so everyone was happy. 

photos by Callie

She's Singing A Different Tune

Remember last year's swimming lessons?  Screaming? Crying?  This year, instead of hearing those things, we are hearing "I love you Callie", "Watch me", and "I love you Mommy."  Music to our ears!

Today, she put her head under several times and then actually played while waiting her turn instead of clinging to the steps the whole time.

I think this is #324 on the Thousand Gifts list!

Go Kate!

Gratitude--Mississippi Grandparents Edition

We had a wonderful visit with Cameron's parents who drove all the way from Mississippi.  I regret that we forgot to take any pictures of them with the girls!!  I thought of it one evening, but then the next day I completely forgot!  We will certainly have to make up for it when we see them at Thanksgiving.

309.  Safe arrival

310.  Bag of goodies

311.  Georgia peaches and collard greens, hand delivered

312.  Hymns on a kazoo--very funny

313.  Bubbles that float all the way across the road and into the neighbors trees

314.  Trying out a new restaurant.  Jersey Cafe in Carmel definitely gets a thumbs up!  Just don't be in a hurry.

315.  Watching old episodes of Remington Steele and listening to Callie laugh at the hair styles.

316.  Poppy's pork BBQ

317.  Mostly good behavior from the munchkin-even without the Blanket

318.  Ice cream

319.  Kate wishing they would stay longer (and Callie too)

320.  Lilly didn't have any accidents in front of Granny! LOL

321.  Beautiful weather

322.  "Interesting" sites seen in the country--Pulling into a driveway to turn around, two big, mad dogs come racing toward us and then their owner made an appearance.  An older man in his Speedos!  We got quite a kick out of that one. 

323.  Running into a dear friend at Trader Joe's

Today is supposed to be HOT.  I foolishly agreed to swimming lessons at 1:30PM everyday for the next two weeks.  1:30?  What was I thinking?  I'm not even going to bother taking a shower before we go!  Too much information? :) 

Out of the Mouth of Kate IV

Kate-Mommy, I have a wedgie.
Me-Do you know what a wedgie is?
Kate-No, but I have one.  What is a wedgie?

While holding Kate she asks me, "Why do you have stripes in your hair?" 
(Maybe I should start coloring again?)

While eating at a restaurant with a diet drink advertisement on the table (she had already asked what it said), "Why does it say diet even when no one wants to die?"

These are just the ones I remember to write down.  Her questions are so funny!

Jammy Run!

I love the boots and night gown.  It hasn't rained in several days. :)

Here it is July and we still had not gone on our annual Jammy Run.  What is a Jammy Run?  It's when you get your kids ready for bed, maybe even put them in the bed and turn out the lights, but then suddenly yell "Jammy Run" and take them to Dairy Queen.

It's so much fun to see the surprised look on their faces.  I read the idea a couple of years ago here.

Anytime we go to DQ, Kate gets a Dilly bar.  She calls the little thing in the middle a belly button!  I almost always get a blizzard and now that they have the "mini" size, I don't have to beg Cameron to share with me or feel guilty.  Callie's eyes are always bigger than her stomach and she usually can't finish what she chooses or else ends up with a tummy ache.  Cameron almost always goes for a dipped cone. 

It's all about making memories and enjoying the good gifts that God gives us.

Our Celebration

Our summer theme of "Unpredictable" continues. 

Our tradition for the last 20 years (that makes me feel really old) is to go to Linton, IN for the Fourth of July.  Linton is a small town, but has the distinction of having the largest parade in Indiana.  Translation...it lasts for hours.  My favorite part is the stealth bombers flying over in the beginning.  Last year they didn't have them and I was so disappointed.  Not in the budget I guess. LOL  It is also the area where my sisters, their families, and my parents live.

This year we found out that some of our family wanted to do something different and go to Gatlinburg, TN for the the holiday.  Then they couldn't.  They were invited to come here.  They weren't coming.  Unless we could find someone else who had no plans, we were going to be by ourselves for the Fourth.  Then, two of them were coming.  Then....they all were!  I think Someone must be trying to teach me something about control and spontaneity! :)

Our church is in a very small community which also has a parade and they decided to participate by having a large decorated wagon, full of people and some children riding their bikes behind the wagon.  Kate rode in the wagon, and her cousin Jasmine too, while Callie rode her bike and Cameron passed out cards with some of the other men.  Cameron said it took some convincing for Kate to stay in the wagon without him.  She wasn't prepared for that and not too happy about it at first.  Cameron had to bribe her with The Blanket, which we normally try to keep in the car or my purse when in public. 

We knew this parade would be much different that Linton's and boy was it!  I think there were only three floats, one band, a few other odds and ends and at least 50 tractors!  I've never seen so many tractors in one parade.

a sight I had never seen before

Best of all, they had a flyover! LOL  Not quite the stealth bombers, but we sure got a kick out of it.  I have to admit, I did like the shortness of it.  It was over before it got too hot.

our "flyover"

unfortunately, the only one of Callie is blurry

We had a great day of Chicago dogs (courtesy of the July issue of Martha Stewart Living), playing in the water and watching our local fireworks from the back yard.  Kate couldn't take anymore though and fell asleep on the couch before it got dark.

It was a very fun day and I'm glad we had a house full of family and went to the states smallest parade.

{This Moment}

I have never seen anyone so excited to catch lightening bugs in my life!  Nor so proficient!!

 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments at Soulemama for all to find and see.