Discovery and Rediscovery

Things we have discovered, or rediscovered this summer:

$.88 for a jumbo box at the corner AM/PM (along with $1 fountain drinks!).  My favorites are the grape flavor, Brian's are the lemon-lime.  The kids like anything with sugar.

Austin's favorite card game.  He got it as a gift last year and we played it almost every day.  This year, his hands are almost big enough to hold all the cards he invariably ends up with.

Frito Chili boats - a childhood favorite of Brian's, and a pregnancy craving of our friend Jess.  She got us going on them again during one of our Girls Nite/Boys Nite dinners.  It is after all our responsibility as good friends to support her in her pregnancy.....

Newly discovered for the boys, and rediscovered for Brian and I (this usually happens for B and I every summer).  We spend equal time on our "court" at home and at the school hoops.  Some of us are bigger ball hogs than others.

Jake found my old roller blades in the garage,and despite them being about 5 sizes too big, he is a pretty decent blader.  Now I am on the hunt for a pair his size, which he reminds me about.  Every day.  Literally.

Crappy Pictures

I discovered this blog on FB from my friend Chelsea.  HILARIOUS.  I love honest parenting stories, especially from imperfect parents with imperfect children.  And these stories come with "pictures".

These are the greatest flip flops.  Ever.  I. Love. Them.  They have made the difference in my feet not aching from walking around on the hardwood floors in our house.  I also started calling them flip flops this summer because it apparently shows my age when I called them "thongs".  Whatever.

The kids originally got hooked on The Empire Strikes Back, and the week Jake got stitches, we rented all 6 movies and watched them back to back, in an effort to keep him (and his stitches) mellow for a day or two.  It worked, mostly.

Now that we live in a neighborhood where the kids can ride somewhere besides our driveway, Jake has become crazy good on his bike, and  Austin learned to ride (check that out here).  Now it's all either of them want to do. 

I had kind of given up on gardening at the old house, but I love to work in my yard again!  I'm not terribly educated about gardening, but I love to weed and prune and water and clip and mow......

Okay, so we didn't discover Orange Julius, but I love a hot dog they made called The St. Louis Bacon.  It's a regular hot dog with mustard and bacon bits (or even better, real bacon, mmmmm) with melted American cheese over the top.  I used to make them all the time in high school.  My kids could eat hot dogs three meals a day, so this is my "adult" version of one of their favorite meals.

I have rediscovered my blog this summer, and probably written more posts in the last 3-4 months than in the whole last year combined.  I have always loved to write, but 15 years of working in HR have honed my professional writing skills, and diminished my personal ones.  I am re-learning how to put the emotion back into my writing (a major no-no in professional documents).  It feels pretty good, if I am a bit rusty.