What a little paint will do...

Friends have asked to see pictures as we get rooms done in our house. Thanks for being excited for us as we add color to our daily lives. Those of you who are in the process of doing the same thing, I love seeing yours too!

Gas or Charcoal?

The other day I was a little bent out of shape because of the heat. Well, today it's 15 degrees cooler--a gorgeous 80 degrees with a little breeze too. So, since summer is more tolerable today, I'll tell you two things I actually love about the season.

The first is flip flops. I have an addiction--it's pretty bad. I am not a shoes or clothes girl at all. But for some reason, when it comes to flip flops, I definitely go overboard. Maybe it's because they're so cheap, it's easy to slip another pair up to the register. I thought I might count how many pairs are in my closet for this post, but I decided not to because if I know the number, I might be really embarassed.

The second thing is the grill. Now, for the past 5 years, we've had a gas grill and we loved it. We loved the convenience and quick prep time of our gas grill. Well, it ran its course from being used so much over the years and we ended up getting rid of it last summer. This year, after moving into our new home, Mark went out the next day and bought himself the King of All Grills--a Weber charcoal grill. I promise you we are never going back. We LOOOOVE charcoal! The change in the taste of our food is unbelievable. From hot dogs to chicken to burgers, everything is way juicier. And I swear to you that our grilled peppers, summer squash and red onions the other night tasted like candy! (For anyone who has not tried this, you need to--thickly slice your veggies, brush on extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle liberally with pepper and kosher salt.)

Anyone out there who would like to share their grilling ideas with me, I'd love to hear it. We've been grilling out about every other night and I always like hearing other people's recipes or ideas for some variety.

The Dog Days of Summer

It's HOT!

Our central air is BROKEN!

I know...boo hoo. Well, what can I say? I'm officially spoiled by AC. I've had it for the past 6 years and not being a summer person in any way, shape, or form to start with, I love life with cooler temps on demand.

I was in Michael's today looking for a couple of things that I didn't find. I ended up coming out with the usual suspects from the dollar bins--thank you notes, magnetic grocery list pads (two things I go through quick), and a 2007 Large Grid Calendar (they're out already, Gretchen!). All that to say that the store was full of fall stuff! It amazes me every year that seasonal things seem to appear earlier and earlier. There was a whole aisle dedicated to Halloween, and it seemed half the store was autumn flowers, wreaths, candles, and welcome signs bearing leaves, pumkins, and scarecrows.

Needless to say it made me very giddy...until I walked out the door and got my 95 degree wakeup call. I won't go into my musings on why I love fall so much--I think I already did that when I first started this blog. But I'll just end by saying when the cooler temps get here, the leaves start changing, and I can go buy a bushel of apples for my annual applesauce making frenzy, I'll be ready and waiting.

Yikes!

The roller coaster has slowed down long enough for me to get off, even though rest of my family is still on it. Here's our last month in a nutshell--We moved from Minneapolis to Columbus June 9, and spent a week unpacking, getting new licenses, plates, learning our way around, etc.

A week later we headed out to Pennsylvania for three weeks of basketball camp. We lived in the dorm, spent tons of time with old friends, took twice-daily walks around campus, enjoyed fellowship at Heritage Baptist Church, threw zillions of pinecones into the pond, ran crazy around the gym when camp was not happening, and ate "yummy" food in the cafeteria, almost got attacked by the psychotic campus geese more than once, enjoyed fireworks with great friends, and had many ice coffees from the brand spanking new Dunkin Donuts. Our hearts were filled up there.

We ended up leaving camp a couple of days early to head up to Boston. My grandmother died July 1 (yaay for her being in heaven, sad for her not being here...) so we spent a few days with my family in Massachusetts for the funeral. It was really great seeing everyone--I saw relatives I hadn't seen in years and I know it made Grampy so happy that every single person in our extended family came (including soldiers flying in from Iraq and missionaries flying up from Ecuador). There was lots of crying, but even more laughing.

Mark had to leave the day after the funeral to start another basketball camp in Cleveland, but he insisted that I stay with my mom longer, so he drove the 10 hours himself with the kids.

I flew from Boston to Columbus today. My kids are still in Cleveland, staying with Mark's parents while Mark finishes up that camp. After these crazy 5 weeks, I've never been happier to sit on my own couch. Since we were only in Columbus for a week before leaving again and going through all the craziness, I feel like my house is brand new all over again.

We leave in another 2 and a half weeks for my brother's wedding down in Virginia, so that's another 9 hour trip to torture our kids with, but I'm not going to think about it yet. I have the next 3 days all to myself before Mark, Jake, and Rory roll back into town and I have lots of plans. I'll fill my days with coffee, relaxation, stocking our kitchen with food, getting a library card (always a necessity right away for me), exploring the city a little bit, and possibly painting the kitchen if I'm feeling extremely motivated.

Real life in Columbus has definitely not started for us yet. But we're almost there, and very happy about it.

Thanks to everyone who continues to pray for us.