and at the end of the day, there is joy...

While this blog is woefully neglected, I still come back to it. I love to write, and this is my one semi-consistent way to get my voice out in the world. One day, I'll actually post on a regular basis. Maybe even have a pretty blog? Hopefully by then, I can just pay someone to host it and make it pretty for me. Ha!

I haven't posted because life has been busy. The kids went on a camping trip up to Mt. Rushmore, and were gone for about five days. This required a bit of packing on our part, obviously. Actually, the kids weren't too terribly excited about going, but they both did well, and had fun! At the same time, my husband took his mom to a family gathering up north, to a different part of the country. And while the family was gone, I got school supplies put together and ready for the new school year, coming up in one week. And this week, there was the fair, and the parade - which amazingly we were able to watch in 80 degree weather, far different from the usual 100 degree…

Just enjoying another summer weekend - been busy cleaning and getting ready for the start of school. I got things to share, but first I wanted to share some pics of the Lantern Fest. Not the magical pics I had dreamed of, but at least I got pics! Enjoy, and I'll be back later this week. Take care!







T The sunset was beautiful. 

Sorry for the long pause in writing – I actually still do exist, and my blog is still alive, although barely. It has been a busy couple of weeks. Lot’s of fodder for blog posts, but not much time to write them or even post them. Sorry about that. Been busy living life. Which really isn’t a cause for apology at all. :-)
A couple weekends ago, we went to something called Lantern Fest, in a city a couple hours away from where we live. I had actually heard about it on a blog post, and the writer seemed to enjoy herself. I researched them a bit, found one near us, and decided to take my family on this adventure. Being the planner and researcher that I am, and also wanting to save money on tickets, I bought our tickets early. I had them for several months prior to the event. However, during that waiting time, most of the research I did was on camera settings - I had it in my head I was going to take magical pics of floating lanterns.
At this point, I’m thinking I should have planned better a…

Sorry for the radio silence over here ya’ll. I’ve been busy living life. Also, too busy to post one of my pre-written blogs. Been busy. So, there was this one holiday, kind of popular where I live, called the 4th of July, ever heard of it?  Yeah, it’s pretty cool. So, we went, bought fireworks, set off fireworks….actually, never a big production at our  house, because I do have serious problems watching my money literally going up in smoke, but it was still fun. This year, we got giant sparklers for the kids, something we’ve never done before. They weren’t too keen on holding them while they were set up. The looks on their faces was priceless! We also got some “giant” snappers, basically firecrackers that you throw like snappers – no fire required. Those were pricey, but fun. We always set our fireworks off on July 3, and then watch the city ones on July 4. It’s a tradition we’ve held for the last 14 years, and its served us well. We did change it up a bit and sat in a different…

My day at work is done.
The email and voicemail have been set to "out of office" settings.
The house is clean, picked up, and the fireworks are bought (although I'm not saying I won't go out Sunday to see what else there is to see...)
My friends, I am ready for a five day weekend!!!
Oh yeah!

I was going to do a blog shout out, but we'll go with this instead. :-)
   The last couple of days, the kids have had appointments. My daughter had one yesterday, for braces maintenance. Then, both kids had one today, yearly dr appointment. I took off early yesterday, while my husband took off early today.
   My afternoon off was rather eventful. When I left work and came to get the kids, we learned that our portable air conditioner for upstairs had arrived - awesomeness! The sucker was bigger than I thought it would be, but I somehow managed to drag it inside the house, and drag the second box out of the first. I didn't get much beyond that point, because I had to leave, and it was heavy. Besides, I wasn't putting it together anyways, that was Hubby's job!
   We spent more time at the dentist than I cared for - they were late bringing her in, and it seemed to take forever. But, if I had to choose between looking outside the window while waiting for the dentist, o…