12 days is too long

Its my Friday, its summer and I'm off to the lake for a long weekend! All is well.

Dylan has been at the lake for over a week. By Sunday evening it will be 12 days. I'm glad he had this time (shutdown week) at the lake, but I am ready for him to come home too!


I'm ready for my best friend back and the dogs are seriously depressed. Right now Meeka has a permanent sad puppy dog face and it is killing me to look at her.

I am also so grateful to soon have my husband back. Everyone knows Dylan has a somewhat flexible work schedule - what everyone doesn't know is how much he does for us, for me, for our home because of his flexible schedule. I try to tell him how much I appreciate all that he does but after this past week I have another level of appreciation!

And we (yeah, me and the dogs) miss his humor.


For example, last night while mowing the last section of the yard (the 'berm' or streetside grass) I seriously almost quit. How wonderful would that have looked? An almost mowed yard! I was so frustrated with the heavy-full-bag-mower, the uneven-snowplow-wrecked-berm, my lack of food, the list of things I still had to do, the joggers staring at my struggles, etc...


But most of all I was frustrated that Dylan wasn't there to laugh at/with me. I didn't need him to mow the yard, I just needed him there to laugh. He knows that stupid strip of grass gets me every time. :-)


It feels good to miss Dylan though. Some people don't miss their spouse when they are gone! :-) It also feels good to realize how much he cares for me by doing all that he does. Even the little stuff like the way he constantly makes me laugh even when I don't want to.

I can't wait to wrap my arms around his neck and spend a few days with him at the lake.




And next week, he is mowing the grass!

By the way, I did finish. I didn't want to be those neighbors!

Happy Thursday - almost Friday!

an old dork

“You know you are getting old when______” is a pretty common phase. Sometimes the blank is filled in by aches and pains, the joy of going to bed early, the decline of athletic ability and so on. This phase is also quite commonly heard around birthdays. Recently, I had a birthday so I heard this type of comment over and over.

Age (the actual number) or getting older does not bother me. Yeah I know, I say that now! But truthfully, age has never been that big of a deal to me.

I guess my phase would be, “You know you are becoming a dork when_____.” Turning into a full on dork bothers me! Forget my age.

Currently my phrase is, “You know you are becoming a dork when you get a sewing machine for your birthday and it feels like the best present ever.” For 2+ weeks I have been absolutely giddy about my new sewing machine.

Last night I hung out with a 65 year-old, Ellen, and it was a blast! Ellen gave me a sewing refresher course and a ton of hints from her many years of sewing that are invaluable.

I am also a full-fledged-dork because for 2+ weeks I have been scouring thrift stores, garage sales and the fabric store for great deals to stock up and decorate my sewing room. Though, my love of thrift stores and garage sales has been earning me dork points for awhile now! I don’t care. I love finding a treasure and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE it when a guest compliments something in our house and Dylan has to cringe because he knows I scored it at a garage sale! Example: our wooden living room chair. :-)

So hopefully I will be updating the blog with my sewing creations someday soon! However, it is summer and as much as I love my new sewing machine I also want to enjoy the summer weather. I need to do as many outdoorsy, non-dorky things as possible so that when the cold weather returns I can sew and sew until my heart is content! :-)

PS – While writing this I tried to get to the root of my dork anxiety. Where does this stem from? It actually didn’t take me too long to figure it out… It is all Kyle’s fault. Once again! Repeating in my head is Kyle’s childhood voice telling me “You are such a dork.” Thankfully God gave me a forgiving nature or maybe just the skill to block bad memories! :-) Big brothers are the best!

green dog

= happy dog

I recently printed out some (85!) lake pictures from the last two years to update our lake album. It is fun to see how things have changed over the last few years - neighbors, trailers, the shack, the pups, the water, visitors ... a lot has changed.

It is also fun to see the good times captured in time.

This day with our green dog was one of those. Taking a clue from Meeka's bandanna it was around the Fourth of July. Dylan threw the football into the water for hours and each and every time Meeka launched herself off the end of the dock into the water to retrieve the football. Sometimes she was graceful, other times not so much!

Meanwhile, Lizzie played with rocks and sticks. Lizzie hates sticks. They make her mad. Meeka was probably very relived Lizzie was playing with sticks - Lizzie is known to be the best mini-dachshund-retriever anyone has ever seen. Liz was letting Meeka shine on this day!! :-)

Looking forward to capturing more good times at the lake this year! So far we are on track for a bunch - especially if Kevin is around the campfire! :-)

open season

It is officially lake season.

The lake is completely different this year. The water from this past fall, winter and spring has created an all new lake.

It feels so good to be back. I just love the feel of being at the lake.

These pictures are all from last year and really have nothing to do with it being the beginning of a new lake season! I'm not sure why I chose to show these dark, colorless pictures when I am so happy to see all the bright colors of early summer! Maybe next time. :-)