The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

THE GOOD:

It is raining today! Did you hear me?  I said... IT'S RAINING!!!  I can't even begin to tell you how happy that makes me.  This means no having to water the lawn tonight.

And for those of you who think I am crazy for watering my lawn so much....just take a look at this luscious, green grass.  I'm very proud of how well it has done this year even though we have had such extreme heat with absolutely NO rainfall.

THE BAD:

It doesn't look like the rain is going to stick around....Ughhhh!

THE UGLY:

There are not enough hours in the day to water both the front and back yard, so we put all of our effort into the front of the house since that is the side most people see. 

As you can see in the photo below...our backyard is in desperate need of some aqua!

Does anyone else have a brown and crusty lawn this year?

It's getting HOT in here!

Between my commute to and from work, along with my workday, I am gone from home about 11 hours each day.  Pile on top of that, having to water the lawn every night and tend to the flowers, make dinner and spend approximately 5 seconds with my husband, and I'm pretty well exhausted when it comes time for bed.

My nightly routine is all out of whack and I blame it on the weather!  If it wasn't so hot I could walk the dogs, go to the park or take a bike ride.  But the last thing I want to do after a long, hot day, is be outside in the sweltering heat any longer than is absolute necessary.

Are any of you feeling worn down due to the hot temps?  I am totally blaming my laziness on it!

Anniversary #2

Tuesday, July 10 was my 2nd wedding anniversary.  I was more than happy to celebrate, seeing that our 2nd year of being married, was so much better than our first. We are truly falling into our husband/wife roles and life is so good!

I did a lot of reminiscing about our wedding day....and 2 years later I still smile ear to ear with the memories of the love I felt that day.  I can honestly say that my wedding day was one of the BEST days of my life so far.

I can remember being on cloud nine...all day....all night!  I've never smiled so hard in one day in all of my life.  I couldn't help it!  Love oozed out of every corner of that tent and I never expected to feel that.

I'm so glad everybody came...I'm so glad my DIY projects were a success...I'm so glad we composed our own ceremony...I'm so glad we didn't elope...But, most of all, I'm so glad ALL of my siblings were able to surround me with their love and support.

There are 2 sisters missing from this photo
(note:  I lost my brother Chris last year...he's the tall one on the left...so I will always cherish my wedding
as being the last "family" event for us all to celebrate together as ONE)

The night was spent laughing, catching up with old friends, screaming with joy, cheering and dancing.  I felt gorgeous and was making a life-altering promise to the man I love and nothing else mattered.

And....did I mention dancing?  Oh boy, did we ever dance!

I will always cherish these memories and I look forward to reminiscing about our wedding day for many, many more years to come!

Happy Birthday Lainey

July 5th was Lainey's First Birthday! Hard to believe my girl is already one.

It was 100+ degrees outside so we took her to the beach and let her do a little swimming.  While there, she made friends with the park ranger and decided that she wanted to drive the John Deere.

After an afternoon of swimming, we came home to rest.  Lainey kept herself busy chewing on her new deer antler.

And after dinner we had dessert.....COOKIES!!

Happy 1st Birthday Lainey Bug!!!  I can't wait to see how you change and grow in the upcoming year!  Love you....

Balloon Fest 2012

Every year in July, our town hosts the Field of Flight Air Show & Balloon Fest.  By far my favorite part of the festival is the United States Air Force Thunderbirds.

I am lucky enough to have them fly over my house, so there is no need to pay for entrance into the air show.  The sound of them alone gives me goosebumps!  Not to mention the jaw dropping precision of the flight team.

Another one of my favorite events is the Balloon Illume.  About 20+ hot air balloons light up the night in a magical way.  It sure does make you feel like a kid again as the crowd yells "Light 'em up!" and on cue, the dark night becomes filled with every color of the rainbow.

Many times throughout the week they launch the hot air balloons.  This is another event that I am lucky enough to watch from the comfort of my own front steps.  There is just something about hot air balloons that make me smile.

This year my husband and I did something new.  After the balloons launched, we decided to get in the car and follow the Post Sugar Bear balloon.  It was so much fun!  I felt like an excited little kid as we (and about 20+ other vehicles) did our best to keep the balloon in our sights at all times.  The anticipation of what road we should take next, in what direction was the wind blowing, should we stay behind or try to get ahead.....almost as much fun as the anticipation of Christmas morning.

Luckily....it was all worth it.  We managed to find the Sugar Bear truck and followed it into a field where we could watch the balloon land.  It was such a cool experience. 

What exciting things did you do over the weekend?