Happy Birthday Wendy

Happy Birthday to my sister Wendy!!!! 

Camping fun

We went camping at Ricketts Glen State Park in PA.  Ken's parents got a campsite and we joined in on the fun. 

So Ken set up the tent, the new camp "kitchen", the chairs, air mattresses, and everything else that he crammed in to the truck. 

We had a real nice campsite but there was only one problem.  Surprisingly it rained on one of the nights and it just happened to rain so hard that the tent started to leak.  Not everywhere.  Just right over Ken, hitting him right in the face.  He woke up and was so frustrated that we moved the entire tent around which meant Cody and I had to share an air mattress and a sleeping bag.  Luckily, Cody didn't wake up through the entire drama and luckily Ken and I got back to sleep and luckily only that one area of the tent leaked and the rest of the night we are all dry and warm.

Cody enjoyed playing with a new friend he met.  They rode their bikes all over the camp.  His new buddy had walkie-talkies which Cody had never played with before.  He really liked calling his friend when they were ready to play. 

Jack and the bean stalk

Holy smokes, is this thing growing like mad.  I love it!!!!  And it's so much fun watching the beans grow.  Can you even see the tomato plant in the pot in the middle?

Grow bean grow!

Beans ready to eat.

Friday at LAST!!!

So, tonight I made chicken thighs on the grill, red skin mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner.  All yummy!  Cody and Ken decided they wanted to hang out in the basement afterward and watch a movie.  I thought, what could I do???  There's so much I need to catch up on and there's always no time to do it in.  I thought, oh I should of visited Wendy but then I'd be stuck in Friday night traffic.  YUCK.  Then I thought, I should go up to my yellow room and start sorting though stuff to throw away.  Then I thought, Nahh....got all weekend for that.  Then I thought, I should go downstairs, relax and watch some tv with the boys.  Then I thought, nope...their having a father son bonding moment.  Then I thought maybe I should go through some of my photos on Ken's computer since my darn laptop's hard drive is full and I can't download photos to it.  So we downloaded all the photos to the desktop.  Then I thought, wait a second.....I'm behind in my uploading photos to my blog.  So I sat down and started from the beginning of 2013 and went through picture by picture to add to the posts I've done over the last 8 months.  It's not perfect but...I did it.  I added photos from late December 2012 - May 2013.  I still have a few more things to add but at least my blog is somewhat up to date.  I still have a ton more to add but it's getting late and I need to close out for the night.  Besides I wonder sometimes if anyone really reads this.  If so, I hope you enjoy it.  It's great therapy to me.

Gee, I have a lot of things that are therapeutic.  Photography, my garden, and writing in this blog.  Writing  helps me get things off my chest.  Even though there are some things I won't dare say yet..but overall, it really does help plus it reminds me of what happen and how well I'm doing today.  And let's pray that continues.

My flowers have really grown

Love my flowers but I will do a different arrangement next year.  Need more color.

This weather SUCKS!

Being from Arizona, I'm use to warm weather.  In fact I love the fact that Arizona is pretty much warm year round.  I don't need the change of seasons.  I'm perfectly happy with wearing cute dresses and open toed shoes all year long.  But living in Virginia is a completely different story when SUMMER is a mere 3 months and the rest of the year is...Ehhh to me.  There's so many people who would argue with me on this, including my husband.  They think Virginia is beautiful, bright, sunny and warm.  Ok, so maybe, just maybe a few weeks out of the summer is warm.  Like the week we had temps in the 90's.  *GASP*  Did I say 90's???  So my version of 90.....YES, I get to go to the pool and the water won't be cold.  Every native Virginian would say.....90...it's so hot.  Can you believe the heat index makes it feel like 105 degrees.  Oh my.....it's so hot.  You can't do anything.  It's horrible. Look our grass is turning brown.....

My version....YES!  This weather feels great and quit your crying.  Phoenix had a high of 118 this summer.  Now that's HOT!  And what's wrong with brown grass.  Water it people!

So, today.....it was overcast and I think a high of 72.  72!!!!!  It's AUGUST for goodness sakes.  I haven't been to the pool in a week because when it's overcast and a tad chilly oh and rainy you just can't go.    For the past 2 weekends we can't forget the rain that we had last Saturday and the Saturday before that.  Now, don't get me wrong.  Rain is good if it's a thunderstorm.   I love thunderstorms.  They are fun to watch well as long as your not driving in it.  Cause for some reason in Virginia, the roads were not built to handle the amount of people here.  So people freak out and we get tons of traffic, even with just a sprinkle.  The back country roads that offer some sort of way to get around not driving on the beltway usually flood so off to the main roads we go.  But traffic is not my subject of this post, its the cold crappy weather.  And it's getting so old.

So I'm going to say it.  If August is going to be cold and crappy then September better make up for it in warmth.  Now of course living in Virginia, the pools all close on Labor Day weekend.  I can somewhat accept that I only have a whopping 28 days left to swim but geez can we at least get some upper 80's - lower 90's to make it feel like it's actually summer?  You know, the season that comes after Spring and before Fall???

Ok, venting done. 

"Virginia" tax free weekend

Whoa!  Let me tell you.  I've got to strategically plan this next year.  I can not believe the amount of people and lines I witnessed today.

It was madness.  I thought I was playing it the smart way.  Got up this morning and decided at the last minute to drive to Winchester to shop.  Not only would I surprise mom but I would hit multiple stores all in a matter of a few hours.  See in Winchester, they've got Kohl's, Walmart, Target, Ross, a mall, Costco all conveniently located within a mere few blocks/miles of each other.... but in Ashburn there's Kohl's 9 miles away, Target 5 miles away, Walmart 8 miles.  Some of these stores are near each other but it's still such a pain to get from one store to the next.  With Cody in tow, I need to get-r-done!

So, I showed up at mom's unannounced and she was completely surprised.  We hit Walmart for school supplies, and all the department stores for clothes.  I was really focusing on jeans or pants for Cody.  He seems to have enough tops but pants....not so much.  Unfortunately, all the stores were super crowed and I just didn't find what I wanted.  Which was kind of surprising.  Normally I can always find something at Kohl's.   I even looked for shoes with no luck.  I'm so bummed! 

Had I planned this better, I would have taken off Friday and shopped while everyone else was at work.  I was not prepared for this challenge.  Next year, I'll be ready.