How I Spent My Summer Vacation

For the past few years The Boy™ has been doing contract work for a company he used to work for, on top of also working for our school district, and so for 2 summers I got to be home during my summer break. This past fall, the company decided that they no longer required his services and ended his contract. I spent several months stressing out about summer work, searching and calling and getting nowhere at all. By a stroke of luck, one of my Zoning Board members owns a Blueberry Farm, and at a meeting in mid-June I asked if they needed help this summer. It just so happens that they did, and I was relieved when his wife called and offered me the position.

A Birthday Wish.... Granted

Way back in December, when I asked Mr. Man what he wanted for his birthday, he replied that he wanted to go shooting with his dad and Grampie. I thought that was a reasonable birthday gift,and The Boy™ explained that when the weather was better, they would go out, but it was too cold to go shooting in December. The weather has been nice for some time now, and Mr. Man has been asking when he gets to go shooting.

Garden 2010

2010 will be known at the year we had a "good old fashioned summer." My kids, who have never known a real summer in there lives, have spent countless hours complaining about how hot it has been since July started. I have tried to impress upon them, that this is SUMMER. July is SUPPOSED to be hot. I, on the other hand, have been loving every minute of it, even with having to work 40 hours outside in the heat. (that's another post)

The Keeping of Chickens

I must admit, I have always wanted chickens. When we bought our house in 2001, The Boy™ picked up a book at Barnes and Nobles called Storey's Basic Country Skills. It is a very handy book, and we have referred to it many times over the years for everything from deskunking the dog, to fixing things in the house. One day during that first winter, I curled up with the book on a cold snowy day, and read through the whole thing. I didn't read the entire book, more than flip through the entire thing, reading about what struck my fancy. I told The Boy™ that it was too bad we had just gotten a birding dog, because I'd love to have a few chickens. Later on I found out that you aren't "supposed" to have livestock in the Village District of our town, and that was that.

It's Not Cool... or The Story of Our New Fridge

On July 8th, I woke up at 5am like I normally do, and set about having breakfast. My typical breakfast consists of a bowl of Kellogg's Healthy Start cereal and a cup of coffee. I poured my cereal, and sat down to eat it. I remember thinking to myself, "this milk doesn't seem very cold". I went about making my lunch for work, and thought, "this stuff doesn't seem very cold either". A week or two prior, due to having ice in our milk, I had gotten a fridge/freezer thermometer and put it in the back of the fridge. I had a look at it, and it read 64*f. By the time The Boy™ got out of the shower, it was up to 68*f.

First Annual Fourth of July Cookout

Now that we don't have a family party in July to celebrate Ms. Thang's birthday, and due to having to work every weekend, except our anniversary weekend, for the rest of the summer, I thought it might be nice to have a cookout to celebrate the Fourth of July. Due to financial restraints, this year I only invited immediate members of both sides of our families. It turned out that all the people from my side of the family could make it, only The Boy's ™ parents could come from his side, and we had it on the 3rd.