We have had so much rain this year.  I feel like it might be time to build an ark!

All American Burgers

 

 With all the rain we had on the Fourth, we weren't able to have an outdoor barbecue.  We headed off to Five Guys to eat some all-American hamburgers.  We more American than hamburgers and greasy fries???

 

We ended our little outing with some dessert from Sonic.  We all ordered some yummy shakes!

Happy Birthday America

 An early morning breakfast at Gary Perkle park was the start of our birthday celebration of our country.  Our ward has a Fourth of July breakfast every year.  It had rained all night and in the early morning and I though for sure we would have rain for the breakfast.  We lucked out and didn't have one drop of rain throughout our pancake festivities.  It was gloomy and cloudy, but no rain. 

 There was no shortage of bacon this year.  It's seems like every year we are waiting in line for a tiny little piece of bacon....they cooked a ton this year.  When we went through the line they plopped four pieces of bacon on each one of our plates.

 Sporting the red, white and blue!

More Rain!

 Here's what we saw on our Happy Fourth of July.....RAIN!  No fireworks or outdoor barbecue for us.  This is the front of our yard, our creek is usually has just a little trickle of water.

Movie Night

We've been waiting for the movie, Monster's University to come out so we could see it.  We had a blast going for Family Home Evening last Monday night.  It was a funny movie with lots of laughs.  Good, clean fun! 

Dentist

 

Remember this feeling of sitting in the dentist chair when you were little?  Staring at the ceiling, listening to weird sounds, and always waiting for the dentist!  Easton had no cavities at his visit with the dentist this weak.  Hooray!!!

  

Rita's

 

Rita's is one of our favorite little treat stops in Suwanee.  They have wonderful Italian Ices and soft serve ice cream.  Easton and I went one evening to get the tasty frozen treat.  Alex's Lemonade was my yummy flavor.  Easton had Raspberry Lemonade and it wasn't yucky!

 

 A little walk in the park after eating our sweet treat.

Perfect

This is my favorite missionary picture of all time that I have received from Dallin.  It seriously melts my heart.  This precious little Brazilian boys' face is perfect and he has beautiful skin.  There is such a contrast from my son's fair skin, blonde hair and blue eyes to this sweet child's dark eyes, hair and flawless skin.  Our Heavenly Father created beautiful children!  Thumbs up to these two boys!!!

Orphaned No More

Way back in March I bought this yummy hot pink skirt.  I was so excited to get it because it was a straight skirt that was long enough for my taste and I just really liked it.  It grabbed me, spoke to me and said,  "You have to have it."  Well, last week was the first Sunday I wore it.  It had become an "orphan" in my closet for months, a piece of clothing that had nothing to go with it.  As hard as I tried, I just couldn't pull an outfit together that wasn't blah or lack luster.  I was always on the hunt for the perfect blouse to compliment the skirt whenever I went shopping.  It was really a challenge to find a fun top that was the right color or complimented the unique texture of the skirt.  Last week I was still trying to make it work when I had an "ah-ha" moment.  My mind started thinking about the possibility of getting a bold piece of jewelry to wear with a white blouse that would match the intense color of the skirt.  Then it hit me....I had a hot pink beaded necklace that my Mother wore in college! She wore it with a hot pink dress that my Dad particularly liked when they were dating.  This necklace had some history behind it!  I scrambled to find it and was amazed when the strand of beads matched the orphan perfectly.  It was just the accessory needed to pull the outfit together.  While I wore it to church I wondered if my Mother was as excited to wear her necklace with her pink dress as I was to wear it with my pink skirt.  Thanks for sharing, Mom!

Fail

This is why Dallin didn't make it to Ashton and Brandon's wedding....he didn't get the invitation!  I was wondering why he wasn't there.

Charitable Charlie

I spoke about this little hairy, mutt on Sunday.  I was the second speaker in Sacrament meeting and had to speak on Charity.  Here's what I said about him in my talk:

When I told my daughter, Ashton that I was giving a talk on charity today with a focus on charity in our homes she just couldn’t think of any family examples that would be good to share.  Then she added that Charlie, our dog was the most charitable person in our home.  We laughed about that, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought she was right and agreed that there were many lessons to be learned from our dog.  He’s so charitable that we may have to nickname him Charitable Charlie!

1.     Charlie has unconditional love for all of his family members.  It doesn’t matter if we left him for a while, or ignored him, or are mad at him for something he has done wrong.

2.     Charlie is so accepting of everyone in the family, no matter their personality or opinions, kind to everyone, doesn’t pass judgments.

3.     Charlie is always happy to see you and makes you feel happy to be home.  He welcomes you with a wagging tail, a lick or two, and he jumps on you with excitement.

4.     Charlie is compassionate, he knows when you are feeling down and when you need some extra attention. Just the other day he noticed a wound on my ankle and tried to help me by licking it.

5.     Charlie is fiercely loyal, a good member of the family, you never feel lonely when he is around.

6.     Charlie is a good listener.  He doesn’t back-talk, quarrel, argue or try to change you.  And he is very attentive.

7.     Charlie shares his toys by dropping them at your feet.

8.     Charlie waits patiently when he has a need, doesn’t yell, he just quietly looks at you or gently nudges you until you finally take care of his needs.

 

Charlie helped my talk to not be boring.   And he was praised from the pulpit by a member of the bishopric as he closed the meeting.  We should all try to be a little more like Charitable Charlie!  He's great!

Super Moon

Easton marked his calendar so we would remember to go out at night and see the Super Moon.  The moon was supposed to appear 12% larger.  Well, we missed it, by one day.  With a little disappointment we went out to see if maybe it would still look bigger.  We got a few pictures of the beautiful moon, but I don't think the wow factor was there.  Oh well, a fun little outing with my guy!

 In my jammies in the middle of the street!

New Pet?

This was found cruising through our backyard at a very slow rate of speed.  I noticed it while cooking dinner and Easton went out a grabbed it. 

 This little guy hissed when Easton picked him up and then promptly shut the door!  No visitors allowed!

Easton put him back in the backyard to care on with his slow-paced life.  We watched him take little strides and then rest for a while.  But slowly the turtle made it across the backyard, up the hill into the pine straw and through the backwoods. 

Another Project

 Here we go again....more yard work and projects.  I am just going down my master plan of projects and getting them done.  I have been wanting to plant a vegetable garden on the second level of the front yard section.  Before Dallin left on his mission I had him clear off the nasty hedge that was growing on that level.  It's the only spot in my whole yard that gets enough sunlight during the day to have a garden.  Well, we're finally getting after it!

Because it has a little slope on the ledge for the rain run off we decided that we had to build our garden in two levels so all of our awesome garden soil wouldn't run off the edge when we watered or it rained.  We are in the process of building the levels with timbers and rebar.  It's taken me longer to get this done, which is frustrating for me, but I must learn to be patient and do a little bit at a time.  I like to finish things in one day and this is just not one of those projects.  We got over half way done building the levels on Saturday and my goal is to have to new soil brought in and the garden plants and seeds in the ground by Friday or Saturday.  We'll keep you posted!

Our original plan was to build the level one with one timber and level two with two timbers and then dig out the dirt and bring in the good stuff to fill it back up.  After taking numerous trips with a very heavy, full wheel barrel we came up with a better plan.  Our new plan in to build each level up higher with another timber.  This way we don't have to dig out the dirt, we just make the area deeper so we have to fill it it!!!  Aren't we clever?  So we are doing raised gardens!  And with that new plan I have to take another trip to Lowes and buy some more timbers.  It's at times like these that I miss my old Expedition....that truck had some serious cargo holding capacity!  I could only fit 8 timbers in my cute, little Explorer.

It was Beautiful

Yesterday this Day Lily was in full bloom, full of luscious cantaloupe colored flowers. I had stopped to look at them and enjoy their beauty. Today, well, I'm not real happy. The stupid deer ate every last lily and future blossom. Not one flower was left, not one bud is left. That's all we get for another year. I enjoyed one day of my day Lily's show. It was a great one. Looking forward to another show next year.