Summer Fun

Warning: Long post to follow…I hope that you will stick with me to the end! : )

Hello dear bloggy friends! What have you been up to this summer? I hope that you are staying cool, wherever you are and whatever you are doing because it is certainly a H-O-T summer!!! I’m sitting here drinking some of Christy Jordan’s Home Brew IcedCoffee as I write this, and it’s very refreshing. I highly recommend giving it a try. 

I have to start with this pic of the flowers I picked in our field this afternoon. Just some wildflowers, but when I put them in a quart jar with a ribbon it looks cute, summery, and country all rolled into one!

I took the day off today and had a completely relaxing day-it has been awesome! I’m not one for sleeping in, so I got up at my regular time but I spent some quality time this morning with a cup of coffee and my book. I’ve also caught up on some shows that I had saved on the DVR. I haven’t been a complete slug though; I’ve done some laundry, straightened up the house, and worked on some school stuff. Mr. P is working late (very late!) tonight, so I have the evening to myself too. I can’t remember the last time that I had a Friday night all to myself. One thing that I haven’t done today is catch up on my blog reading, so that is definitely on the agenda for tonight.

Last week, Mr. P and I spent 4 days here at Barren River Lake with two other families. It was simply gorgeous! 

We went down on Thursday morning and the rest of the group didn’t arrive until Friday afternoon, so we had some time to ourselves. It was the first time that Mr. P had stayed in the area in years and my first time ever, so we had a lot of fun going exploring. I also had some quality time under a shade tree with a glass of sweet tea and my Nook!

After we had made the reservations and planned the long weekend, we realized that it was also the opening weekend for Harry Potter. So Mr. P reserved tickets for a midnight showing in one of the little towns near Barren and we were able to go see the movie on Thursday night/Friday morning. Love, love, loved the movie and I’m a little sad to see it all end.

On Thursday night before our little movie excursion, we had dinner at the lodge. I kept it light and just had the soup and salad bar. On the salad bar, they had the best cucumber and tomato salad that I have ever had. I’m now obsessed with finding a recipe for it! It was slightly creamy so it must have mayo or salad dressing in it, and it also had dill, onion, and vinegar. Does anyone have a recipe that sounds like this? I would love to have it if you do. I found one that sounds pretty good on cooks.com but if someone has a tried and true recipe I would love to give it a try.

We ate pretty well on our weekend-as we always do! Whenever we get together with friends, we just love to cook up big meals. Mr. P smoked another pork roast (it was awesome as always) and I made corn salad. I also brought some Homemade CinnaBuns for breakfast one morning. Some other food staples from the weekend were homemade pimento cheese, baked beans, sausage pinwheels, and pasta salad. We also had a night where we roasted hot dogs and had s’mores-yummy, yummy!

Besides eating and reading under a shade tree, we also went boating, rode bikes, and took some long walks. All in all, it was a great trip!

My family members who were in the horrible car accident are doing much better. Everyone is home now and recovering at a good pace. E., the 16 year-old had another surgery today but she should be back home in a couple of days. There is some nerve damage in her arm, so the surgeon is taking some nerve from her leg and putting it in her arm. Thanks to everyone for their prayers-each and every one of them is greatly appreciated!

We had VBS at church a couple of weeks ago and on the last night we took the kids on a hayride to a neighboring farm. I made friends with Dolly the Llama-hee hee!

Has anyone read any novels by Kristin Hannah? I saw this book when I was browsing on B & N today and it looked good, so I downloaded it. Her other novels looked pretty good too…

Before I sign off, I need to introduce you the newest member of our family. Back in the spring, my in-laws had to put their beloved dog down. A couple of months later, they went to the shelter and adopted this adorable pup who they named Duchess. Now many people may think that she is named for Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge but they actually chose the name because their other dog was named Duke so they thought that Duchess would go well with Duke. She is so cute and energetic. The other day, she entertained herself on the front porch for over an hour by playing with a rock. Seriously. Just a rock, that’s all. Of course, I was entertained just watching her play with a rock, so maybe I shouldn’t judge… 

Here are a couple of pictures of her cuteness…

Playing with my niece Katie 

Watching the world go by from atop a hay bale...how cute is that?? 

I can't post pictures of Miss Duchess if I don't include Miss Sunny too...she'll be jealous if she finds out! Here she is down at the pond with us on a Sunday afternoon.

Other things on the horizon for us-school starts in two weeks (yikes!), Mr. P is on a big bridge project right now, and we have a family reunion next week. Busy times, busy times…

I apologize for the complete and total randomness of this post-I was really all over the map, wasn't I? And if you are still reading this, thanks for sticking with me to the end!

TPP