Hey-yo! Back again. I said I would, and here I am. Josh is sanding a project in the TV room involving a lot of dust, so why NOT blog, eh? We’re back at the cabin here.
I have to say, this little girl did great during the week at the cabin. I think she only had two accidents inside. Sure, we had to lock her outside when we ate inside (or vice versa) and sure, she barked a lot during that time but hey, she’s a baby! Maggie used to bark so frantically on car rides in the early days we had to resort to an old school method of shaking a certain amount of pennies in a soda can to hush her up. Six pennies? Seven? Who can remember these things.
This shirt and I are still going strong, and it’s still true! No earth tones for this earth mama!
This dude and I are still going strong, too. My neighbor’s son watered our outdoor plants while we were out of town and when I wandered across the street after walking Rosie yesterday to thank them, she told me that her and her husband of 42 years were divorcing. Kind of similar circumstances as my parents, but not exactly. Still, wow. That’s a long time.
We have 15 years of marriage to celebrate next month, 18 years total this November so basically we’ve been together for 20 years, and that’s basically half my life. WHAT? WILD.
Werk, etc. etc.. I have cuter shoes. I encouraged Josh to take these “glamour” shots of me the second day, when my skin was all fresh and not covered in mosquito bites, sunburn and other fun skin problems. The um, chemical tan was fresh. Also, the experience of getting a fake tan grosses me out SO MUCH NOW I can’t believe I used to get them all summer! Embrace the pale, betch (I say to myself 97% of the time).
Mom in the background, watching her grandchildren while her adult daughter preens in a gold bikini. The top is from “Unique Vintage” and super cute, but the bottoms to match were the old-school high-waisted sort of diaper-looking bottoms that some people love but not me. I’m all about shorts and board shorts, what can I say.
We had a similar routine to last year: every morning we’d have breakfast together, then Mom would take a quick walk and then watch the boys while Josh and I walked for about an hour with Rosie. It worked out to a little less than 3 miles a day. The morning is the best time for a walk, since it’s too hot the rest of the day. Perfect near the lake though mmmmmm.
Lisa and her two daughters and her grandson arrived on the second day, and left on the fourth of July. We took the boat into town for ice cream with them, just like we did last year. I had been saving clothes for Del all year, since he’s a year younger than the little redhead and–they’re almost all too small! He’s a real bruiser, that one. I’ll have to bestow my kids’ clothes on the next baby in the family.
Beautiful sunset. We had heard that there was a bear prowling around the cabins, getting into everyone’s trash, and we were no exception! As we were returning from getting ice cream the second day, the neighbors warned us that the bear had just left their place and was coming our way! We all rushed inside (well, MOST of us…some of us decided to hang out on the back porch in hopes of getting close to the bear). I pulled the little redhead up onto the kitchen counter and the boys and I gazed out the kitchen window to see a small black bear clambering up the driveway.
I was so surprised, I didn’t even have time to take a picture! Josh has a blurry picture of the bear. The bear got into our garbage two nights, but luckily we never ran into him on our daily morning walks. Yikes!
Here’s Lisa and I the day that she left. Aurora took this picture. Awwwwwwww. It’s sweet that our friendship has lasted so long. First year of college to now. Her father died earlier this year, so there were lots of extra hugs.
Rosalind Russell Holcomb takes a snooze. Those morning walks relaxed her a lot! She always managed to get her energy back in time to beg at dinnertime, though.
On the fourth of July, Bob and Fleeta drove over from Spokane. Fleeta was about to embark on a trip to El Salvador with her church, so they only stayed one night. The day was so quiet, it was hard to believe it was the fourth! For YEARS I’ve complained about the fireworks that start on July 1st and aren’t usually over until days later. As a dog owner it’s always a pain in the ass. I even obtained liquid gabapentin for Rosie from the vet before the trip. You can see her crashed out on my lap above. The only fireworks that happened occurred on the other side of the lake, and I couldn’t hear a thing through my earplugs. Bliss, baby.
A lot of yums happened, but this was one that I removed right after I snapped a pic of it because I was worried that it would wash off in the rain or overheat in the sun and fall off and an animal would choke on it. NO REALLY.
Josh snapped this candid of me attempting to read my Kindle in the blazing sunshine (challenging!). I finished a suspense novel not good enough to mention, a great horror/beauty novel called “Natural Beauty”, and started a Scottish murder thriller that my mother recommended to me called “The Heretic”. Excellent! I hadn’t read anything for a couple of weeks, and it was so nice to be able to have the time to read again.
OK I gotta say, blogging without featuring my kids after 6 years is super weird. Here is a weird little drawing I did with a grape-scented marker one morning. Goo drew up a storm all week long–he is a true artist, drawing every day. My heart swells with pride!
What more did we do? What else is there to say? Cabin stuff! Relaxing on the beach, eating way too many cookies to count, a few fires and s’mores, watching the sunset, floating on a variety of floaties in the water every day, lots of paddleboarding (Mom tried to show off to Josh and fell backwards ONTO HER BACK but luckily was OK)…
Also like last year, Josh and I had one dinner away from the cabin by ourselves. The restaurant patio was outside and filled with fresh flowers and that was great; the food was so-so. Still. Time away from the boys!
Thank youuuu, portrait mode on my phone. I’m getting kind of phoned out. Should we go back to cameras again? I have several gathering dust in a closet.
My signature leap off the dock, captured by Josh. He swore I jumped higher this year. I believe him! Goo and I jumped off several times together.
Phew does that wrap it up? I’d say so. I had a long day today–off from work, but with the boys. We went to the gym this morning, searched for bugs in the backyard in the afternoon, and at night they both had mega meltdowns but were asleep by 8 pm! YES GOD! Catch ya later, blog.
