Day 050: Doggy Door

":) I taught Lily how to crawl through the doggy door and Ashley taught her to box with soda can koozies... We're such good influences...

Day 049: GKA

Today was the annual God-Kid Adventure. This year we did a pirate theme and floated the river and searched for buried treasure. 
I barely had time to get over there with the camera... The kids were super fast in finding and digging up the treasure. They're excellent pirates.

Day 048: Lilac Bushes

Ashley needed new outdoor lights for the garage, so when I got out of work, we went to Menards. All their trees and bushes were 50% off, so we got some lilac bushes to go on the side of the garage.

Day 047: CMC

Homemade crab-meat cheese for dinner. Yum!

Day 046: Gummy Candy

The gummy candy worked out way better than the rock candy.

Day 045: Rock Candy

I tried making rock candy jewels... but I think it was too humid. They didn't harden.

Day 044: Pesto Pasta with Shrimp

This morning I was getting ice out of the freezer and I knocked a plastic container of homemade pesto out and it broke on the floor. So I put it in the fridge to thaw for dinner. Tonight I made pesto pasta and then decided to put shrimp in it. The package said to brush them with butter and then broil them, but I didn't want to melt butter, so I used a container of garlic butter that Papa Johns gives you with pizza. Garlic butter shrimp and garlic in the pesto... but one can never have enough garlic, so I sprinkled it with garlic salt. It turned out pretty good and, of course, was super easy.

Day 043: X

Day 042: Organization

The dogs woke me up a little before 7 and I couldn't go back to sleep because the contractors were demolishing the driveway with a backhoe and a sledgehammer. So, I set about cleaning and organizing.

Day 041: Treasure Map

I watched The Goonies while I started creating a treasure map. It seemed fitting.

Day 040: Cool in the Pool

The heat index was over 100 today (and the actual temp was in the 90s), so it was definitely a pool day. And yes, that is a bottle of champagne on the deck. Sarah and I are big fans of wine and swimming.

Day 039: Hidden Bloom

I was picking raspberries and I kept smelling flowers, but there were none over by the bushes... and then I found this flower hidden among the raspberries. I have no idea where this beautiful stargazer lily came from or even that there was a flower growing there. It was definitely a nice surprise. It's very fragrant.

Day 038: Soothed

So glad the pool is blue once again. Now time for a swim!

Day 037: Ouchy

I rubbed the skin off the bottom of all my toes on the concrete in the pool yesterday. I know it doesn't look that bad, but trust me, it hurt a lot. I couldn't wear shoes and I could hardly walk.

Day 036: Pool Party

After Gage's birthday party, because it was so hot and humid, we went over to Kelly's aunt's house to swim. The splash in the background is Gage.

Day 035: River Clean Up

The loot from the CNC river clean up. My shoes broke and I ended up having to go barefoot even though it was terribly rocky. At this point, I'm taking a break and letting Marc drag me in the canoe... up river.

Day 034: Treasure

Day 033: Pirate Paper

The GKA this year is going to be a pirate adventure, so I had to make super old invitations. I think it turned out pretty awesome, though it smells like coffee.

Day 032: Garage

The new garage is coming along nicely.

Day 031: T-Shirt Quilt

I finished the latest t-shirt quilt tonight.

Day 030: Food Sealer

I busted the food sealer (that I got for my birthday from Mom and Ashley) out of the box and used it to freeze raspberries from the yard (picked yesterday and today--while I was out there I discovered a mulberry tree that hangs over into our yard! More berries!) and the asparagus Ash and I bought on the lighthouse adventure. I love this thing!

Day 029: Berries

I picked almost four cups of raspberries today and I found a few blackberries on the other side of the fence. Yum!

Day 028: Lighthouse

Dennis, Marc, Ashley, and I went on a lighthouse adventure. We started in Muskegon and drove up the coast. We then drove back down to Grand Haven for a sunset picture.

Day 027: Tennis

After arriving in Grand Rapids and having a late-ish dinner, Ashley, Dennis, Marc, and I decided to play tennis in the dark. It didn't work out too well and we lost two of the three balls to the woods.

Day 026: Finished

The painting is complete. Now I just need to hang it on the wall in the stairwell.

Day 025: Raspberries

The raspberries are finally ready for picking!

Day 024: Painting

The painting I'm currently working on. This is 1/4 of it.

Day 023: Independence Day

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [and women] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Day 022: Dessert

This is one of the dirt cakes I made for the BBQ on Friday... complete with fake flowers and chocolate rocks.

Day 021: River Rafting

Today was such a beautiful summer day that we decided to go rafting down the Chippewa. The party included Gage, Sarah, Ashley, Dennis, and Marc.

Day 020: BBQ/Bonfire

We celebrate our independence by grilling, burning stuff, and blowing up small food items.