Two of my favorite things...

Today we bought two of my favorite things: ice-cream from Coldstone Creamery...

...and a beautiful new Toyota Prius!!!!!!!!!

Isn't it the most beautiful car in the whole wide world??!!!  I love it!!!

Mmmmm... life is good :)

Is it fall yet?

Sigh.

Is it fall yet?  Summer sucked.  Is it over?  I feel like it's been non-stop drama since the end of June.  The last day of summer camp at school was on Friday.  Now we have one more week (teacher week - prepping the classrooms, etc) and then it's back to school on September 2.  I don't care what the calendar says, fall starts on the first day of school.  Yeah!

Fall is my favorite season.  Aside from the usual events like the school's apple-picking field trip, and Halloween (I've bought a new Halloween t-shirt at Target today!),  I've got some other good things to look forward to... My friends, Claudia and Jeff, are getting married two days after my and P's 4th anniversary.  I guess that counts as two good things!  I get to wear a (yes, I'm going to say it) really pretty bridesmaid dress, so that's number three.  And second to last and last but not least, my (gulp!) 31st birthday in a couple of months, which happens to coincide with a trip to Disney World.  I could do without the 31st birthday, but the trip should be fun.  

So?  Is it over yet?  Someone wake me when it's September...

In defense of my garden...

So Dale's (my sister's) comment to my July 11 post about my green beans needs an appropriate response.  So here it is... 

My little garden has been quite productive lately.  I've picked at least 15 cucumbers (!!! - good thing everyone I know likes cucumbers!), 3 tomatoes (tomatoes are apparently not my strong suite, but they were uber-tasty!), and a bushel (Yes- JOE!  A real bushel!!  All 2 pounds of it!) of green beans!  Suburban- bushel my ass!  I am tempted to pull up one of my (many!) beautiful carrots, drive to NC, and whack you over the head with it!  

How dare you insult my garden!  Mmmph!

:)

59 hours...

... in a car together over the last few weeks and he's still my sweetie!  

That boils down to about 12 fast food meals (yech!), 20 potty breaks, 200 radio station changes (we love you Sirius Satellite Radio!!!), and 2700 miles!  Yikes!  It's good to be home.

Back from Indiana

We just got back from our third trip to Indiana in three weeks. Have I ever mentioned how much corn is in Indiana? There's a lot of corn. It's pretty monotonous, but it makes for some beautiful sunsets, don't you think?

Drumroll, please.....

Ta da!!!  I cooked.  OK... so I'm not that humble... I've got to toot my own horn a little more than that!  I didn't just "cook"!  I dreamed, planned, worked, toiled, sowed, watered, tended, fretted, waited, waited, waited, harvested, and THEN I cooked.  Woohoo!  Fresh from the garden: one tomato and a bushel (how much is a bushel, anyway?) of green beans!  There's some home-grown basil in there too, but it's kinda hard to see.  

That's chicken, by the way, dredged in flour mixed with salt, pepper, garlic and Italian spices, then lightly pan fried in olive oil.  A slice of fresh mozzarella, just-picked tomato and a sprinkle of crumbled bacon and right-from-the-deck basil, finished off the dish.  I know green beans don't exactly scream to be paired with a basil and mozzarella entree, but I couldn't bear to let them go bad while we're gone for the next few days!  I wanted to eat them fresh off the vine before the rabbit that I spied in my garden had a chance to tell all of his rabbit buddies.  That's right: they've found my garden.  Gasp!

I guess it was inevitable.  I've seen them around the neighborhood and figured it was just a matter of time before they smelled the yummy goodness growing in my postage stamp of a yard.  Sigh.  I'm holding out hope that he was just lost and there by mistake.  You see, I walked down the back steps to find him sitting in the middle of the grass.  He freaked out when he saw me and ran towards the house, where he sat (under the deck) and looked slightly confused and statue-like.  Then he ran closer to the house and found a gap between our house and our neighbor's yard, which he popped through.  I'm optimistic that he was a first-timer judging by the way he didn't seem to know his way around.

My theory is that the water-meter guy opened the gate to check the meter, at which time Peter (Rabbit) hopped through.  Then the water-meter guy, having finished his meter-reading, left our yard and closed the gate, trapping Peter inside.  At that time, he froze, contemplating his next move.  He failed to notice the fresh cucumbers on the vine, lush green tops of the carrots (not ready yet, I picked a couple already -looked yummy, tasted flat), thick broccoli stalks, and abundant green beans.  He just sat there, trying to figure out how to get home, when I walked down the stairs and startled him.  

Seriously.  I think that's what happened.  Nothing has been nibbled on.  Nothing has been touched.  Everything looks as beautiful as it did two days ago when I last checked.

So I figured I'd pick what I saw and enjoy the fruits (and veggies) of my labor while they were still there.  We'll be at a wedding all day tomorrow and driving to Indiana on Sunday.  I won't see my garden until Wednesday evening, at the earliest, at which time a lot of it could be gone.  

Wascally wabbits!  No!  I'm not going to think like that!  They haven't really found me yet and cute little Peter was just directionally challenged.  He won't tell his friends that it's there.  Will he??...  :(

We lost a great lady...

It is with great sadness that I tell you that Pern's mom, Fran, lost her battle with lymphoma last week.  A case of pneumonia sent her back to Northwestern Memorial in Chicago, where she succumbed to complications.  She was a wonderful, loving, funny, generous, and caring woman and we will all miss her very much.  

The following pictures were taken during our visit with Pern's parents at the end of June.  We went to Indiana to see his folks for a couple of days and to spend his mom's birthday with her.  We are both glad that we had a chance to see her in good spirits before she died.  It was a good visit.

When we gave Fran her birthday present, we included a scratch lotto ticket, a tradition in P's family.

A scratch ticket requires a coin - preferably a nickel - 

and a coin requires a dad!

Fran won $20 that day!

That boy loves his mom...

Bye, Fran... we'll miss you...