Dairy of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Eleven and the last true vacation day :(

I woke up to the feeling of a kitty washing my nose with his rough little tongue.....Kirby never does that but for some reason he wanted me up at 8:00am....they had food and fresh water, but he would not leave me alone.

Stayed up late last night reading and I was surprised I was as motivated as I was when I got up this morning.  I had Connor and I go outside just as soon as my coffee was ready to water everything in sight.  All the containers, the flower beds, the vegie garden, the tomato garden, all the hanging planters.  In this heat, it has to be done every day.

Much too hot for two days in a row at the pool, so I spent a few more hours purging and organizing my craft room....wouldn't you figure, I'd get motivated to do this during the last part of my vacation.  I'm starting to get quite the pile of stuff to sell or donate.

The other day when I was at my girlfriend's massage center, she sent me home with this wonderful flower water.  It's the perfect thing to spritz your face with when it's hot.....and I love the lavender scent.   Thanks Di!  It's very refreshing!

I headed up toward Ames in the afternoon, with a pit stop in Ankeny.  I needed to pick up some green cardstock for a couple of pages that I'm working on.  I couldn't believe I didn't have the right shade of green that would work with the pattern paper I am using.  I hadn't been in Memory Bound for at least a couple of months and it was fun to see what all was new.  I did pick up some new DoodleBug Fancy Frills border stickers and a few sheets of a summer themed "Sunshine Happiness" by Bella Blvd, but that was all.

Couldn't believe I got so much done in a short amount of time.....I ended up running out of pages to do...now, I couldn't completely finish what I'd done til I got back to my craft room, but the pages were 80% done.

Made more headway in my craftroom.....the scrapbook sale pile is growing......

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Ten

I had a doctor's appointment today so I had to set the alarm to get up.....I guess I better get used to that again.   :(

After my appointment I went to Staples to find book rings for another mini album I'm finishing up and I found the cutest little desktop cube organizer that found it's way into my shopping cart and it rang up even cheaper than I thought.....yay!

I had Fred put it together and it resides on my work table and it's perfect.

Decided that I wanted to get some sun and swim some laps, so off to our local pool I went.....glad I was in the water for the most part...IT WAS FREAKING HOT!  I only stayed about an hour and forty five before heading home to a nice cool refreshing shower.   My guys gave this to me at Christmas and I've been anxiously awaiting the summer months to use it and it is heavenly.....but you must like the fragrance of pineapple and coconut.

I got to meet up with a dear friend for dinner tonight.  I've known Becky now about 12 years.  We met through scrapbooking and then found out that we only lived about 4 blocks from one another at the time.  I've also got to know one of her daughters quite well and enjoy seeing Laura whenever I can.  I've hosted both of them at my house to scrapbook a few time and we always have a great time!  Becky and I like to meet at the same place (Hilltop Restaurant) and order the same thing....two Diet Pepsi, two dinner salads with the dressings on the side and a Medium Mushroom/Green Olive pizza that we devour like raging animals....lol!  We also do A LOT of talking.......lol

Stayed up late again reading....I started two new books....Fast Food Nation and Room.  I alternating between them as they interest me.  My last true vacation day is tomorrow......sad face.....

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Nine and July 4th!

The teen spent the night with a buddy of his and is going boating at Red Rock with his buddy and his family, so Fred and I slept in and took our time having our morning coffee.

It's suppose to be 104 degrees today and that's not heat index, so all of plants and gardens got an early morning watering again.

Our plan was to go see "The Amazing Spiderman" but I guess a million other people had the small plans and by the time we got to the theater, the show was sold out, so back home we came and hung out here until our company got here for our cookout.

Since I had a couple hours to kill, I did some more reorganizing and purging in my craft room.  I think this fall I'll have a mini garage sale to get rid of just crafting supplies.......then I'll buy more with the money made...lol!

I really needed to address the closet in my scrapbook.  It's quite large and I use it for crafting stuff, so I pulled everything out of it, made piles (to go through later, to sell, to donate) and put what I wanted to keep back.  

Much better!

The bottom shelf with the magazine holders will house whatever issues I decide to keep once I go through what I have left.  I got rid of probably 60% of my magazines and idea books a couple of years ago, but still hung on to most of my Scrapbooks Etc....those need thinned out.

My sister, her b/f and my nephew Gunner came over for a cookout.  The b/f had to work, so we decided to wait on him before plowing into grilled burgers, hotdogs, baked beans, cherry fluff, corn on the cob, chips, homemade vanilla ice cream and smores........it was an awesome spread!  and very easy to put together.

After dinner, we all watched the Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynold's movie Safe House.   It wasn't bad....I got distracted by my nook.....finishing up that Steve Berry book that I probably didn't pay attention like I should have....lol

We were going to go back over to my sister's place once it got dark to watch another fireworks display, but even at 10:00 at night, it was hot and I didn't want to sit outside in it again and then have to come home and take another shower.....so we flaked out.....but it was a VERY relaxing 4th of July!

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Eight

I had to get up early today to get my car out to the dealers for a courtesy visit......boo!  and I discovered that I left my favorite to-go coffee mug at Dianne's yesterday, so since I was going to be out that way anyway, I killed too birds with one stone.....got my car serviced and picked up my mug.

I also had to stop at Hobby Lobby for adhesive.  You certainly can't scrapbook without something to put pictures on paper with.....

I did a tiny bit of weeding today and harvested some more squash and grape tomatoes from our garden.  I have to keep everything watered in this kind of weather.  The Rose of Sharon that I planted in honor of my mom has already bloomed, I usually don't see it bloom until August.  It really is quite beautiful until a strong thunderstorm comes in and blows the blossoms to pieces.  :(

I love that my newly planted day lily is doing so well....it's had at least 4-5 flowers on it already......I love the color...

Spent the rest of the day catching up on some DVRed shows I wanted to watch and dusting the main floor of the house.....black furniture and black surfaces = big time dust.
 
The other day I stopped at a farm stand and bought some Iowa grown tomatoes (our heirlooms won't be ready to harvest until late August) and they were wonderful!  We had BLT's for dinner with some excellent homemade macaroni and cheese.

A couple months ago, my sister and her family moved to a house that is very close to two different venues that do amazing fireworks displays, so we went over to their house after dark to have an up close and personal fireworks display......the local horse track and casino did theirs Tuesday night and the local amusement park is doing theirs on the 4th.  My sister live close to both of them.

Stayed up way too late putting the finishing touches on one of the mini albums I made last weekend.....it's really cute......summer inspired......I'll share later!

Dairy of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Seven

A completely lazy day!  Much too hot out to do nothing but water all of my plants early in the morning...and off to meet my oldest and dearest friend Dianne for a massage at her spa.  She's been helping me with my right shoulder and her therapy has helped.   After the massage I took her out to lunch before her next afternoon appointment and I headed out to Bed, Bath & Beyond for a bit of retail therapy.  I had 20% off coupons that needed to be used and we're still waiting on our Keurig shipment, so I bought a couple of boxes of K-cups there.

Got back home and got cozy on the couch with the book I'm reading The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry.  I'm almost done with it and it's getting really really good.  I may read in the next in the series "The Venetian Betrayal" if I can find it.  ......I even took a nap....it was heavenly.  Once Fred got home from work, we grilled out Stuffed Chicken Breasts and had some baked crinkle fries.

After dinner, I went up to my scrapbook room and got a wild hair up my you-know-what and decided to do a bit of re-arranging.  I wanted to move my desk directly in front of the window so I can take advantage of the light, plus moving the IKEA 8 cube shelf over and lay it on it's side will give me a bunch more surface space.

Before I had my desk back in the corner and the IKEA unit was standing on end rather than lying on it's side as it is now.....thus the increased surface space that I moved my printer to and I also have my Big Shot, Quickutz and a small trimmer there also.  I get a LOT more light now that than IKEA unit isn't blocking one of the windows......I think I like it.......or at least until I get another wild hair up my you-know-what.

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Six

It's been a LONG time since I've been so lazy on a Sunday.  I woke up at 7:00am and went downstairs and Kirby and I snuggled on the couch and watched the most recent episode of "The Real Housewifes of New York City" and yes, I know....I'm going to fry my brain watching that crap, but it's like the old saying goes..."It's like watching a train wreck, you can't look away"....lol!  Fell back to sleep on the couch and slept til 10:30...Wowza....I'm usually already done with the weekly grocery shopping and back home by 10:30. 

I played in my scraproom for a while and finished up another couple of pages.  Trying to decide if I'm going to re-organize it....it's such a massive undertaking and because it's not a large room, I don't have a lot of options.

I finally got myself together enough to get dressed and go to the grocery store because we were out of milk and almost out of bread.  I decided that I was going to "freestyle" the grocery store this week....lol!  I am very meticulous about planning meals, making a grocery list, knowing what's on sale and even having an average of about $10 bucks a week in coupons.  Today, I was going to "wing it"....or my own coined term of "freestyle it".

I took a list of what I had hastily written down that we needed, the store ad and my coupon keeper and off I went....It wasn't the first time I had done that, I "freestyled" a couple of weeks ago, but we really didn't need much that week.  I was surprised that I spend about $40 bucks less that I usually do....

It's been so damn hot and anyone that knows me, knows I DO NOT LIKE SUPER HOT WEATHER, but the heat has been amazing for my vegetable garden.  My zucchini and yellow squash plants are larger than I've ever seen them.....look at all the blossoms

Enjoyed watching the U.S. Olympic Gymnastic Trials and absolutely thrilled that our hometown girl Gabby Douglas came from behind and took the #1 guaranteed spot on the U.S. team!

Stayed up late reading magazine and watching (for the millionth time, but I adore it),  The Rocker.

If you haven't seen it, seriously get your butt to the video store and rent it.......Rainn Wilson is just so good...along with Emma Stone, Teddy Geiger, Jason Sudekis and even cameos by Wil Arnett and Bradley Cooper.   Let me know what you think!

 

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Days Four & Five

After staying up late watching movies last night, I slept in on Friday and had just enough time to get a shower and get ready in time to meet my Aunt Susie at the Des Moines Art Center to go see Jackson Pollock's MURAL that the University of Iowa owns and is here in Des Moines until July 15th when it gets sent out to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles for the next two years.    The painting is amazing and to think that a painting that large was hanging the the foyer of Peggy Guggenheim's Upper East Side townhouse before she donated to the University of Iowa.

After wandering through the art center, Connor, Susie and I enjoyed lunch together and then we headed back home so I would have time to get ready for my anniversary date with my husband.

We had dinner at Sam and Gabe's for the first time.  I've been wanting to eat there forever and a few weeks ago there was a Groupon, so I thought what a perfect opportunity!  I made the reservations and mentioned we were celebrating our 25th that evening.  When we got there, they had the best booth in the restaurant reserved just for us.  We had an amazing dinner.......bruschetta and toasted raviolis as appetizers, a wonderful salad with a classic italian dressing.  Fred ordered the Beef Tenderloin DeBurgo with Grilled Shrimp and a baked potato, I order one of their signature dishes, the Chicken Asiago with a side of grilled asparagus.  Over coffee and for dessert we shared a piece of their homemade Flourless Espresso Chocolate Silk Torte.....it was heavenly!

Saturday brought a long awaited scrapbook session with my good friend, Gina.  We haven't been able to see each other in a long time and as busy as we both are, we have to make plans well in advance.   Instead of trying to plan pages, I decided to work on 3 different mini album kits to give as gifts.  I've had the kits forever and this week I dug out all of my unfinished kits and projects, put everything in a big basket and sat it where I can see it in my scrapbook room with the goal of getting everything either made of completed.

This week while I was home, I did finish up a small printer's tray that I had.  I adore how it turned out!

One parting thought........I HATE HOT AND HUMID WEATHER!

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Three

WAY too hot to plan anything outdoors today!  110 heat index is enough to keep me inside all day

It is my 25th wedding anniversary toay!   I can't believe that a quarter century has gone by since I married Fred.  We're going to be celebrating it in August when we go to San Francisco with a side trip to Napa/Sonoma Valley.  Tonight we're having a friend over for dinner and then tomorrow night, Fred and I are going to Sam and Gabe's for dinner.

I'm so thrilled that on my 25th wedding anniversary, the Supreme Court handed down their decision to uphold the Affordable Health Care Act!   A landmark decision on a historic piece of legislation that will allow all Americans a chance at affordable health care.  I'm over the moon happy!