just when you thought I'd forgotten about Blogger

Never mind that it has been three months since my last post. Never mind that I don't even know where to start to "catch up" so I don't think I'll even try. Never mind that this summer passed in a blur more quickly than any other in recent memory. Never mind that I should be folding laundry right now. Just never mind a lot of things.

Here are a few random highlights from the past three months, in no particular order.

For those of you who follow me on Pinterest, I finally chose a dress pattern to make for my 30th high school reunion in June:

And speaking of my reunion, I had a great time spending time with my best high school buds (and our beautiful daughters) shown here at InTea, a way-cool tea shop owned and operated by my friend Carole:

We spent a number of summer evenings watching Sarah's team, the Mustangs, play softball.

We loved having Josh and Charlotte come over the Fourth of July weekend!

We love hiding stupid things around the house for each other to find, the latest of which is a creepy plastic lobster that John managed to sneak home from youth conference. You never know where that thing will turn up next!

Mark gave us a scare when re-lighting the pilot light on our dinosaur-aged furnace. A mild explosion left him with bad burns on his hand, a hairline 1/2" shorter, and little-to-no eyebrows. (This photo was taken after his hand had healed considerably.) Hooray for hot showers, though!

Participated in my first-ever graffiti mission (or perhaps I should say anti-graffiti), spraying over an obscene gesture that Emily and I found distasteful on a dumpster in our neighborhood. It just goes to show you that matte black spray paint isn't just for old lamps and picture frames.

I finally got around to defrosting my dinosaur-aged 2nd (garage) refrigerator freezer.

We ate numerous times at Senor Burrito, our favorite local Mexican spot, for dinner--courtesy of my Dad.

I loved having Emily home for the summer and was sad when it was time for her return to Provo. We had a fun trip together, though, in her new car (I flew home after a brief day-and-a-half stay).

Loved seeing Michelle!

I completed my mormon.org profile.

I cut my hair, working toward some sort of bob 'do (see another one of my Pinterest boards). A work in progress.

I took John to have his senior pictures taken (sorry--no link available; I'll post them after I purchase the copyright to the ones I like best). I'm still wondering how John can possibly be a senior in high school already.

And how is it that Sarah skipped the gawky seventh grade phase altogether? This is her first-day-of-school picture, as an official seventh grader:

And there you have it:  my (mostly) complete, and (somewhat) comprehensive review of Summer 2011. Here's to better blogging in the Fall. . . .

it's a wrap

This has been perhaps the busiest summer of my life, what with Charlotte's wedding plans, work (not to mention searching for new work), and Relief Society--and don't forget all of those pesky table cloths I still need to iron. Of all things, I never would have imagined that I could have found time to be part of a singing group--good grief, I don't even have time for Ward Choir!

But a couple of months ago my friends convinced me to join them in a small group made up of Wheat Ridge High School graduates. We were all--at one time or another--members of the show choir there. We've been practicing once a week, and last night we had our first "gig."

Mark asked why I stood on the "men's side." It's because I sing tenor.

I still wonder how I've found the time to do this, but I've identified that the whole experience has been like therapy for me. For those two or three hours that we rehearse each week I completely forget about everything else. It's like going to a really good movie where you don't think once about the overwhelming To-Do list waiting at home on the kitchen table.

Really, these are some of the nicest friends I have the pleasure of knowing. And it's a whole lot cheaper than professional therapy.

fruits of our labors

Guess which one is John's?

airing my dirty laundry

9 a.m. Saturday morning:

9:05 a.m.:

8 p.m. Saturday night:

8:35 p.m.:

8:42 p.m.:

Oh well. At least I was caught up on laundry for seven minutes.

rockin' end to a snowy day

I woke up to about four inches of snow, which continued to come down heavily all morning long. Mercifully, Mark traded me cars, as mine is not so good in bad weather and I have a longer commute to work than he does. This photo doesn't really do the day's weather justice. I took my camera with me to work, thinking I would be an awesome blogger and snap a photo along the way. My drive ended up being of the white-knuckled variety so thoughts of blog posts were put aside.
It had stopped snowing by the time I got home around 1:30 p.m. and I decided to shovel a bit, "a bit" being the operative phrase here. The snow was much heavier than I bargained for and I still had my high-heeled boots and skirt on. I decided it was a good project for John to finish when he came home from school.

I decided to try one of Michelle's recipes from her blog for dinner, a creamy potato soup, which--when paired with a loaf of my mom's homemade bread--made for a tasty meal at the end of a snowy day. For FHE we talked about Remembering (sound familiar?) and wrote thank-you notes. Before the kids went to bed, John cajoled Mark and I into joining the family rock band for a round of Guitar Hero. I sang the vocals on "Heart Breaker" and must admit that I've never really listened to the lyrics of that song before. It was a little weird to sing about "releasing my inner fantasy" with my kids.

The evening had a few rocky spots, but I'm choosing to remember the good parts. Remind me next time to let someone else take the group SP so my head doesn't look so large.