Green Green Grass of Home........

I was Iowa bound this last week and just returned home today! Pretty good flights, great weather (for Iowa in the summer!),WONDERFUL food, and most of all - FAMILY!

We went back for my nephew's wedding reception which was held out at my brother's place - it was a beautiful night and the humidity stayed under control just for us! Of course there was lots of good food and drink, a great band playing under the stars and lots of old friends to visit with! Now any other time I would have been out there dancing on the grass but there were just too many people to visit with that night so the dancing will have to wait until another time!

Most of the nights were spent at my sister's house and I posted a picture of her neat old house above! It's a classic IOWA home that yes, could use some more work on the inside but I love it just as it is! They just don't make homes the way they used to and this one has loads of character! I love their huge tree in the front yard and their even larger tree in the back yard!

We had lots of family around to visit with and of course all 3 of my siblings were there which made the trip extra special! My sister Teri was all prepared to accept the award for coming the furthest till our aunt and uncle brought THEIR son and his wife who are here from Africa! More pictures - More visiting!

I brought back my usual August souviner from Iowa - TOMATOS!!!! Nobody can grow tomatos like Iowa can - so in turn that makes the humidity there bearable, knowing the result is those huge, red delicious tomatos! I specifically packed a special bag in my suitcase to bring some home and they made the trip just fine! It's BLT's all week!

More blogs to follow on our trip - but in the meantime, a big thank-you to Glenn's folks and Patty and Leonard for their wonderful hospitality!

Only Time Will Tell........

Glenn has started to work on the lower level of our house - and that excites me! For the past 8 months, the basement has been one huge storeroom - anything that we didn't want in the upper levels was stored in the basement, along with all of Glenn's tools and machines!

I haven't sat in our family room furniture for a year now - it's been stored since we moved and I'm missing the recliners! We also have a 9 foot pool table that was here when we bought the place and we're both excited about using it one day! SO when Glenn came home with some 2 x 4's and started working, I was giddy with excitement! Sure, it will take a long time to finish the lower level but the process has begun and I will be updating on it from time to time. Progress takes time, trust me - I know!

Ft. Collins Festivities

I decided this year NOT to give birthday presents to the 3 girls and their spouses - it seems to get harder and harder to come up with something "unique" to give to everybody and usually what they need, they buy!

But I still wanted to do something special to acknowledge an occasion so came up with the idea to give a gift for their anniversaries as a couple - instead of individually for their birthdays - and the one thing that popped into my mind was that we all enjoy most of all, spending time with each other. So our gift to each couple this year is to take them out to dinner wherever they choose and have a nice, quiet (or loud, depending where we go!) dinner! No grandkids allowed!

Jill and Robby were first on the list as their anniversary was July 4th - so we set a date for Glenn and I to spend the weekend in Ft. Collins with them and we headed up after work on Friday!

I've always loved the town of Ft. Collins - it's a beautiful, clean college town with lots of shopping, great coffee places, and loads of trails to walk on!

Robby had to work on Saturday so the 3 of us headed out Sat. morning to hit some garage sales - of course, Glenn ended up buying the most! I guess he didn't feel the basement had ENOUGH stuff in it so decided to contribute some more! (Just kidding!)

Sat. afternoon Jill and I played on the computer - Jill is a part-time Mary Kay consultant and has a great website where you can post a picture of yourself and then apply different makeup and try LOTS of different hairstyles! We had a ball making ourselves look absolutely hideous with some of the hair pieces - yikes!! Now I know why I keep my hair short - long hair JUST doesn't do it for me!!

We headed out for an early dinner when Robby got off work - they had chosen Hibatchi which is a Japanese place that cooks your food in front of you! Glenn and I had never been to a restaurant like that before so thoroughly enjoyed it and the food was fantastic!!

Our plans afterward were to go to a drive-in movie!! Yes, they have one in Ft. Collins!! And we were so excited to go in Robby's truck and then were going to put lawn chairs in the back to sit on - but one side of the screen was showing a movie that Jill and Robby had just seen over the last weekend and the other side of the screen was showing a movie that Glenn and I had just seen for my birthday! DARN!! So we decided to forego the drive-in this time and headed back to play darts in their garage with some of their friends and eat ice cream cake - yum!!

Did I forget to say I had coffee on Saturday AND Sunday? A different place each time - I enjoy comparing the coffees!! We walked through their Farmers Market and while the guys did some driving around, Jill and I went to see "Momma Mia" - wow - we LOVED the movie! We both enjoy musicals and this was one of those light hearted movies where you can just sit back and relax! If you love Abba music, Pierce Bronson (who can't sing worth a darn but is great anyway!) and Meryl Streep, you will LOVE this movie - it's a definite chick flick so don't take your husbands unless they enjoy people breaking into song every 5 minutes!!

Jill made an awesome dip to feed us before we headed home today and also a great chicken salad yesterday - both recipes will definitely make it into my recipe book!

Thanks Jill and Robby for a wonderful weekend! We'll be back soon to install your granite!

Chopped Off Once Again!

What is it about a haircut that makes you feel SO GOOD about yourself and also MUCH LIGHTER???? Last night after work was haircut night and although I've decided to grow my hair a little longer on the top, the back and the sides needed trimmed! But even after getting that little bit trimmed off, I feel better about myself! Guess that's just what a haircut does for a woman!

I'm also wearing one of my new outfits that Jaime and Jessi bought me so I'm feeling rather spiffy today! Even if nobody else notices my haircut and my new clothes, I can still relish in the fact that I look good to ME today!

Summer Fun

Weekends with the grandkids are always fun and this last weekend was no exception! Even though our time was short in Denver this time, we packed a LOT of "kid" time into our 2 days!

I always enjoy walking around Jaime's nice neighborhood and taking a stroll down to Rayna's school where there is a playground. We put the 2 little boys in the wagon while Rayna rides her scooter and off we go!

And this time Jessi took us all to her subdivision "private pool" which is only open to the homeowners in that particular homeowners association - I was amazed how nice the 2 pools were and the beautiful park surrounding it! We happened to go late in the afternoon so it wasn't busy at all and the kids (and the adults) had a great time!

Our days were rounded out with coffee at Caribou Coffee, a trip to Target where Glenn and I bought a much needed new gas grill, fishing for the guys and shopping for the girls! Both girls bought me new clothes for my belated birthday gift - new capris and shirts to match!

And since we were actually still celebrating Jessi's and my birthdays, Jaime brought home a huge dairy queen ice cream cake that we devoured 2 nights in a row! Yum! Yum!

Here's hoping your summer is filled with PLENTY of fun!

Full Moons and The Number 8

There is a full moon tonight - I'll be waiting impatiently for it to come up over the mountains!

I've always loved full moons - I love watching them slowly come up, peeking over the edge of the mountains and then slowly emerging until the entire moon is full and round. Isn't it amazing how sometimes the moon looks yellow or orange or blue? I'll be sure to check out tonight's moon and see what color it is!

Did you know that sometimes there are 2 full moons in one month? When that happens (which is rare), the second moon is called a "Blue Moon". I remember the year when there were 2 blue moons during the course of that one year - wow - 14 full moons that year!

And it's also an "8" number today, the 18th! 8 is my favorite number (Jessi's too!) and we love days that are "8" days - 8, 18, 28!! So between being an "8" day, a Friday and a full moon day, I think my evening is going to be spectactular!

Landscaping

I'm not much into doing landscaping or gardening - never have been - but I LOVE to look at flowers and gardens and shrubbery. I really enjoy walking through the botanical gardens and beautiful landscaped properties and I admire people that do this type of work!

Here in the mountains, we don't have to worry about lawns - most people just have the "natural" look which consists of pine cones, pine needles, dead wood, shrubs and lots of rocks - I must say, it's VERY easy to take care of!

So Glenn took on the job of landscaping the side of the house, after the rocks were put up on the and he did a great job! He terraced the side and then planted not only the junipers we had bought but dug up some grasses and shrubs from our property and replanted them.

We also have flowers on the covered porch - most of them are in pieces of wood where Glenn has hollowed out the inside and they are very fitting for the log house - we do have one huge pot that was right at the edge of the covered porch filled with flowers - well, until yesterday at least - I came home and walked up the one step to the porch and immediately noticed ALL the flowers were gone, just the lonely plants were sitting there - Glenn informed me the deer had eaten all the blossoms off - needless to say, we moved the pot further back on the porch!

Speaking of deer, when I was out walking this morning, I saw a doe and her 2 twin fawns run across the road in front of me - gosh, they were cute!! I wish I would have had my camera with me! It was indeed a Kodak moment!