10 Things I Love About Summer

1. Buttons. I love watching her love summer. The sandbox and her little pool are two of her most favorite things. She also has a fondness for bopping carpenter bees with her father. That's their thing not mine, but I'm glad they have a "thing".

2. Music. Windows down, volume up, singing loudly. Blondie, Abba, Erasure...anything I can sing along with in the car and know at least the chorus very well.

3. Movies. There is something heavenly about going into a cold movie theater in the middle of the hottest summer day and needing a sweater when you're inside. I love coming out with the memory of the movie while the sun blinds me with its bright beauty. Sometimes the movies are even pretty good.

4. Gardens. I love seeing the flowers and picking veggies out of a garden. In fact, we need to plant some flowers soon. We just have our perennials up right now. The beauty of the flowers and the grass reminds me of when we lived in San Diego.5. Swimming. Yes, Buttons and I do it all year long indoors, but there's something about being outside at a lake, pool, or even just your own backyard mini-pool that screams summer.

6. Camping. Not that I've really done much of it since I married, but I love it. My family went camping every summer usually in a pretty nice but modest trailer. Hubby and I don't have a trailer, but we have a tent with very few camping supplies. I hope that as Buttons gets a little older, we'll go camping just as I did as a kid. Campfires? Hiking? S'mores? Sleeping hard in your sleeping bag? Oh yeah baby, I'm so there.
7. Grilling. Love the taste of charcoal, but with the ease of gas we wind up doing it more often. Ok, Hubby winds up doing it more often. Veggies and chicken are my fave, but I like grilled bananas too. Yes, you read that correctly...grilled bananas.

8. Shorts. Not on me, but I love to see Buttons and Hubby in shorts. I get to see how much she's grown from last summer when her legs are bare. Last year is was mostly knees and feet. Now she has legs! And Hubby in shorts? He has great legs.

9. Anniversary. Ok, technically ours was a spring wedding, but it's in June so I count it as a summer wedding. We were married on my grandparents farm on the most beautiful day in Michigan in 1994. I got the best one. (Raising Arizona quote.)

10. Food of summer. Watermelon, lemonade, sun tea, corn on the cob, potato salad. Need I say more? I am a foodie after all.

What's your favorite part of summer?

And the Oscar goes to...

Well, I don't know yet but I'll be watching tonight. The Oscars are a bit of a holiday in our house believe it or not. In years past, I've invited people over for a little party. I serve food inspired by each movie and usually try to have people dress either as a character or in the spirit of the movie or just get gussied up a bit. I would have had Kentucky Fried Chicken for "Little Miss Sunshine"(they ate it in one of the first scenes), English Breakfast tea with scones for "The Queen", potatoes for "The Departed" (Irish mafia), rice balls for "Letters from Iwo Jima" and some sort of mixed vegetable or casserole for "Babel"(lots of different stories coming together), but for various reasons it just didn't happen this year. Well, the Hollywood Holy Day is here and the hour is almost nigh. Happy Oscar everyone!

Stranger than Fiction

My birthday is tomorrow and some wonderful friends watched Buttons while hubby and I went to see "Stranger than Fiction" and I'm really glad we went. I am a fan of Will Ferrell and movies like "Being John Malkovich", "Adaptation", "I Heart Huckabees", so this one was right up my alley. Life sure has a way of intersecting points. We also went to church today and the sermon was about living your life in abundance instead of scarcity, enjoying your life and counting your blessings. You know, general life stuff. However, when this message comes at you twice in a day very powerfully, you begin to sit up and take notice. I think my next post will be counting my lucky stars, blessings, good things, etc. It's Thanksgiving this week. Hold me to this, guys.