Lazy Summer Afternoon

Okay it is hot today.  We spent all morning DIYing our new church facility.  Okay that's a little extreme :).  But we did spend all morning on it - carrying multiple loads of trash to the dumpster, taking down old paper towel and soap dispensers, carrying lots of old paint cans to the "garage sale" room, sweeping up old tile, cleaning out the old storage facility.   The boys framed some new walls and took care of hoisting the heavy carpet roles into the dumpster and doing any other dirty work the rest of us stayed away from!

So this afternoon we're being lazy.  Pretty lazy.  We got Popeyes - yes I still think it is the most delicious fast food on the planet - and now we are sitting in the AC reading and blogging and answering personal emails (since apparently now my work days are way too crazy to even begin writing emails that are not work related, okay actually I do start them and then at 4:45 when I'm shutting down I see these half written emails that I was in the middle of when this meeting started or so and so called).

Okay so just some funny pictures for you today of our baby :).

This was Blitz "helping" me take a nap.  First I put her outside but she kept trying to open the front door, so then I put her back in her crate and she whined and cried and made all kinds of crazy noises, so I let her out to come by me and this is what happens.  Pretty much on my lap haha.

 Yep she's so good at taking naps :)

She also really loves the new window seat.  Any time our neighbor is outside this is her new favorite place to be, standing guard over the rest of the house :).

Yep, she's pretty awesome :).

Okay so other random thought for the day: I love having a summer garden.  It's so fun just to walk outside and think hmm what should I add to dinner tonight, some cherry tomatoes? On a salad? In pasta? On shrimp kabobs? Don't mind if I do.  Butternut squash? How about stuffing it with sausage and breadcrumbs and cheese? Yes please!  Basil, tomato salad? Yum Yum.  Stuffed peppers?  Mint in my iced tea?  Fresh lettuce salad for lunch?  Roasted poblano salsa?  The list seems endless and it's free!  And so fresh!!  And delicious :). This week I'm going to try making my own pasta sauce with cherry tomatoes, we'll see how it goes!   Too bad lattes don't grow in gardens, I'd be so much less poor haha.

Loveliness

I love summer nights.

I know, I know it's muggy, but I really don't mind.  I just drove home with the windows down and some Ryan Adams blaring (for the record not nearly as blareable as Enrique but for a five minute drive it will do haha).  Now Blitz and I are sitting out on the porch relaxing to a girly spotify playlist - don't worry Spencer's not here.  I don't subject him to my rascal flatts, one direction, regina spektor, "call me maybe" playlist - well at least not on repeat for hours on end :).

I would love summer nights even better if I didn't have to get up early for work, but that's a rant for another day.  Okay here are my random recommendations for the week:



Headhunter - really, really good movie, and not just because the main character is a headhunter like Spencer :).  It's by the guy who did the original norwegian Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Other than the random nudity we really enjoyed it.

The Second Shift - really interesting book about families with dual careers and children.  Alisha read it :).  Apparently I have a fascination with sociology books that is just not satisfied by my day job, go figure haha.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer - okay the boys wanted to see it.  I wouldn't have paid 8 bucks to see it with the girlfriends but it was pretty entertaining :).  And plus we went to the cheap theater so it was only 6 bucks, take that!

Okay so I gave you a whole week to look at my pictures and brainstorm.  Okay, okay it was sheer laziness or umm lack of planning to make time in my day for blogging :)

So here's a few more lovely ones as a bonus for your waiting patiently.  All the lovely, peaceful ones are from a day trip I took Provincetown, across the bay from Boston.  (Sidenote - on our last trip we did all the free history attractions since we were broke and in college so this time I decided to fork over a little cash and venture a little further out).  So at nineish on Monday morning while Spencer and his coworkers were slaving away at the conference I boarded a giant catamaran for the 90 minute ride to Provincetown.

It was such a beautiful ride.  Past all these little islands in the bay, some with old forts on them, some with lighthouses, one with the Boston airport, one with a power plant, and countless ones that looked barren of all human life but oh so green!  Then it was out into the open water and on to cape cod.  At this point I realized I should have been a sailor.  Yep I was out on the deck reading and slowly people started coming out and laying on the benches looking awful.  I realized the sea was a little rough but I felt plenty fine to be reading with the ocean spraying in my face, randomly enjoying looking up at the blue water all around.  And then the fun started.  Okay not fun, three of them puked!! Into the little white bags! Right in front of me.  Yeah it was pretty gross.  And I felt bad for them, but still not sick.  Hence I've decided to take sailing lessons - hey wait! That was already on my new years resolution, perfect :).

So after 90 wonderful minutes (to me at least) the catamaran dropped us off on the end of a long pier that led into Provincetown. And then I had all day to explore.  I started out walking up and down the main street poking into all these little art galleries and local shops but quickly got bored of window shopping and I was not about to lug around a bunch of purchases - well other than a small box of fudge :).  I couldn't resist that!  So I hit up a local coffee shop for a latte and a snack and then decided to strike out for the cape.  I had seen that there was a rock bridge out to the cape and I thought what the heck I have all day, why not?  So I started walking.  About 30 minutes later I got out of town and to the lovely rock bridge:

At this point I felt totally ridiculous because I was jumping across these rocks in my sperrys with my coach purse full of fudge on my arm.  Yep I was prepared for a hike :).  But come on!! I wasn't going to let a little wardrobe malfunciton stop me from enjoying the solitaryness that awaited me on the other side of the bay:

There was no one!  I could have been in the middle of nowhere instead of a short walk from town and a short skip across the bay from millions of people hurrying around the streets of Boston.  It was so breathtaking.  I could have sat there for hours and just enjoyed the sound of the ocean and, and well nothing else. I hiked through the overgrown greenery to the light house and snooped around but decided warning signs from the US government to stay out were good enough to keep me from trying to pry open the door - I know, I know where is my bravery?  Maybe I forfeited it when I decided to carry my coach purse across the wildnerness who knows ;).

I loved the pieces of driftwood resting in the sand - I mean come on real driftwood!!  After hiking out to the lighthouse I realized if I didn't turn around soon I might miss the ferry.  Yep I had walked for over an hour and a half to get out there!  So around I turned and started headed back to town.  Someday I'll pack a picnic and spend a day journaling in that sand.  Add that to the bucket list.  On the walk back I decided it would be a good time to pray - note to self, praying while hopping over rocks right by the water might not be the best practice, but I survived ;).  The only casuality were my sperrys.  They now smell AWFUL.  Oh and my face.  I got sunburned! It was cloudy and chilly but apparently three hour hikes mid day still give you sunburns :).

Once back in town, I found a local artist who was selling prints of beach scenes and found one that a perfect addition to our mantle.  And no this is not it - this is just a beautiful sailboat that we saw on the ride out of Provincetown.  The iphone could not capture how graceful it looked with the lighthouse in the background, but maybe you can get a little glimps :).

And just in case you aren't jealous yet of all the loveliness, I most definitely got the emergency exit row on the plane ride home and had all this leg room.  Yep Spencer didn't even know what he was missing when he opted for the aisle sit :).

Okay this post is getting out of hand and super long, time to switch the laundry to the dryer and head to bead.  Go to Boston.  It is beautiful.  Take the ferry.  Hike out of town.  And then send me some more pics of it :).