Summer random-ness

Well, so once again I have gone too long without blogging. What I had thought was going to be a very boring summer has turned out to be quite busy! With getting ready for Jaycee to start her school, her birthday, my birthday, gearing up for fall and all that involves. This post will probably be just a bunch of random desriptions of pictures I took for whatever reason.

I did try my best and find some enjoyable things about summer, even though the weather often felt like we had been relocated to the suraface of the sun. We were showed much kindness and generosity by several friends and family members giving us gorgeous things they had grown in their garden.

We also were given some peaches, but I didn't get a picture of them. We ended up with a ton of cucumbers all together, so I decided to try my hand at making pickles. It wasn't too difficult! I'm still letting them sit, we'll see if they taste good.
We were given a giant zuchini, and I decided to try and stuff it. Wow, was it ever huge! But it was really, really good. We ate it for 2 nights, and gave some to my mom and brother. I have heard this called zuchini boats, but my mother and I nicknamed this the zuchini ark.Cut in half, removed the seeds, stuffed with a meatloaf type mixture, then covered in mariniara sauce and cheese. Yum-oh!

I have also been spending a lot of time making trips so Danville, where my grannie still lives. This woman is the epitome of strength. She lost her husband, my grandpa, 20 years ago. She's had cancer twice, her house caught on fire, she worked till well past 80. She finally has admitted that it's not safe for her to live alone, so she is selling her house and moving to a nice place where she will be better taken care of. She offered for me to come to her house and go through things and see what I wanted and needed. I found a lot of things that I wanted, not bc they were valuable in the ways you would think, but b/c they meant something to me in relationship to her. For example this pot:Was purchased by my grandparents along with some other cookware over 60 years ago right after they got married. She was still using it to cook in. There is no telling the amount of potatoes it has boiled, and now, it continues to do so. How cool is that?

And ah yes, my birthday happened. First, I just want to say, that I thank God so much for giving me another birthday. There was a time when we didn't know if I would have another. But here I am, blessed beyond measure! Justin had been working a lot, as usual. He got off at 3pm on July 31st after working a 12 hr shift. He said he wasn't too tired for us to go out to dinner for my birthday, so we did! I wanted to go to fuji, b/c I love the food, and it's so much fun for the girls.

Jos eating soup:

Jaycee and daddy:

Then all I wanted afterwards was a snow cone. I have serious snow cone love. The girls enjoying theirs:

Sunday the 1st was my birthday. We went to church, which was wonderful as usual. Then to mom's open house at her sub-division. Mom is the realtor for cobblestone homes out in Williamson place off hwy 71. She sort of fell into the job by accident and is now doing awesome. They had an open house/family day on the afternoon of my birthday and we went and ate hamburgers and the girls got to see the ft smith Police. They got fingerprinted, toured the swat vehicle, and met the drug doggie.

Gettin their fingerprints

Then we had to head back home so Justin could get ready to go back to work. After he left, he called me and told me he forgot his dinner at home. I grudgingly told him I would bring it to him. After all, I had just listened to bro Ronnie preach about showing God's love, right? So we brought him his food, and I thought well since I didn't have a birthday cake, we will swing through braums on the way home and get an ice cream. So i'm driving, eating my ymmy ice cream, and feeling good about doing something nice for my husband, and all of a sudden SLAM! We were hit, the ice cream flies everywhere, and the kids are screaming. They start crying, I start crying, it was mayhem. The guy runs up to the window and tells me that oh, there is only a little ding, and asks me if I even want to look at it. I say um yes of course, and tell him we should pull over and get out of the highway. So I do, then he does, and speeds right past me!! A nice couple that was in the other lane saw the whole thing, and said they saw him texting on his phone when he hit us. Great. I called Justin, b/c um yeah I was driving his truck. He called the cops for me b/c I was so upset. They came out, took a look at everything, got all the info, and basically told me there was nothing I could do. The nice people that witnessed the whole thing stayed though and gave them their name and numbered and offered their help. At least some people still have a concience. By then I was angry, upset, and just wanted to go home and go to bed. We still had to the store, and then Justin calls me and says that his friend is bringing over a dog for us to dog sit for a month. Seriously?? I love dogs but at this point I can't take anything else. I have to admit I was a little miffed by the fact that he hadn't even given me a birthday card, or said happy birthday to me. I just kept telling myself oh, he's tired and so busy with work. I was finally able to crash into bed that night, and just wanted to forget the whole day. Then, the next day I walked into the kitchen, and saw this:

Cake, a dvd player for our room since we just got a new tv for in there, and a box of ice cream cones. On the card it says look in the freezer. I did and there was a tub of cookie dough ice cream. It took me a minute to figure out what he was trying to do. When we wrecked I was eating cookie dough ice cream in a waffle cone and it got splattered al over the truck, so he was replacing it for me. I forgave him for not giving me a card on my birthday :)

Just some random cuteness:

The girls have been begging for bunk beds so we finally did it. Here they are, so proud:

Jaycee, being Jaycee. "mama, take my picture with me posing cool on my skateboard!"

Out to lunch with mom one day at Bravo. MMMMM so yummy!

My brother and his girlfriend have moved back home and i'm so glad! We needed some yardwork done and they needed some work, so we hired them to help us out this weekend. The girls thought they needed to help too, it was so cute.

Ok I think that's it. I'm so ready for fall. Lot's of church activities, kids in school/mother's day out, MOPs group meetings. And cooler temperatures! I'm tired of sweating!

Love to all-Jasmin