July in Review

Well, we've made it out of June - on to July!

AROUND THE HOUSE

Mitch decided to take our grill off the deck and store it in the garage instead.  I quickly claimed the newly empty space as my future outdoor reading  corner!

We finally became a toaster ovens household!  I was probably way too excited about this addition to our household.  I don't know what it is, but there's just something about a toaster oven.

I discovered Grey's Anatomy reruns and quickly filled up my DVR over and over again with them.  (Mitch and I have since joined the Netflix revolution and I'm now watching them there and leaving room on our DVR for my other 'programs.'  Also, I'm not sure why Mitch and I waited so long to hop on the Netflix bandwagon - it's fabulous!)

BOOKS

After reading Where the Heart Is, I thought I'd grab the other Billie Letts book I had on my shelf and give that one a whirl.  Sometimes you're not ready to leave an author after one book.  While I didn't think it was quite as good as Where the Heart Is, I did really enjoy Made in the U.S.A.  Letts knows how to write characters you fall in love with (I adored Fate).  And side note, how pretty is this cover?  I definitely want to read her other novels.

I had a love-hate relationship with Chris Bohjalian based on the two novels I picked up by him; Midwives is one of my favorite novels but I couldn't finish Before You Know Kindness.  I wanted to read at least one more (perhaps several more) of Bohjalian's works because of the impression he left with Midwives.  Secrets of Eden was definitely better than Before You Know Kindness but it was no Midwives.  This did restore my faith in the author, however, and I look forward to reading his other books on my shelf.

I heard so many wonderful things about A Man Called Ove and it did not disappoint. It was such a sweet, humorous book.  I highly recommend it.

CRICKETT

I needed to wash a couple of Crickett's stinkiest toys and she got very concerned about the whole ordeal.  It was so cute watching her.

A couple of nights later I was doing my own laundry and Crickett had to inspect every step of the process.  She may have developed some trust issues after that first night - ha!  Sometimes my little girl really impresses me with that memory of hers; the things she remembers when I'm absolutely certain she'll forget!  She is still showing a great interest in the laundry room to this day.

FAMILY

The Fourth of July holiday was spent with family.  We enjoyed the nice day and played some Yard Yahtzee at my parent's house and ventured out that evening to our city's annual fireworks display.

The second to last weekend in July was spent with my dad's side of the family out on the family farm for our now annual Fam Jam event.  As always, it was absolutely fabulous being in one of my favorite places on earth with some of my favorite people on earth.  I need to give this wonderful weekend it's own post.  Stay tuned.  (Hopefully not too long!)

MOTHER NATURE

We had quite a few storms over the summer and quite a few of them were rather intense.  The clouds with this particular storm were incredible; I'd never seen anything like them.  I almost felt like I was in a movie!  Mother Nature is definitely a talented (and destructive!) lady.

The bell flowers in our front yard finally started to really bloom (I'd been checking on them constantly since May - obviously I was very excited!)  I love their simple prettiness.  I should really try - and I mean, really, really try (because you have to work hard when you have a black thumb) - to get more flowers going around our house next year.  They are truly a joy to have around; it's hard not to feel calm and happy when looking at them.