july in a nutshell

Hello?

*crickets*

Does anyone even stop by here anymore? I've become a pretty big blog slacker lately. I'm going to try to get better though since my original plan was to make a blog book once a year for a little keepsake since I don't scrapbook. So here we go - this could be a long one.

I can't believe July is over. How is this summer going by so fast!?! Danny and I have been super busy around the house. He poured cement to extend our patio and to create a sidewalk that connects the front yard to the back.

We painted! Wahoo! I'm sure you can imagine my excitement. My wonderful DIY husband, insisted on doing all of these projects himself. I am one who can get easily overwhelmed and really just wanted to hire it out but he assured me he could do it and it wouldn't be too bad. And? He was right. For the most part. It was a lot of work (for Danny) but the finished project looks great! The paint job looks much better than the original one done by the "professionals" (I use the word lightly). Danny is a big time perfectionist so when I would try to help, he'd just chase me away because apparently I suck at painting. Who knew? I LOVE the new color and how it looks with everything else. I am so happy we did it!
We also found some time to do some nonhouse related things family barbeques, time spent with friends, firworks, typical July type activities.

The highlight of the month for Danny was probably getting LASIK done on his eyes. He's been wanting it done for awhile so he doesn't have to deal with contacts when he goes camping and when he plays sports so he was thrilled. I took him to the appointment and watched the procedure on the screen in the waiting room. I would not recommend doing that if you are at all squeamish. It was nasty! There were other people in the waiting room who were waiting for their turn to have it done and I don't know how, after watching it, they could possibly want to go through with it! But it was amazingly fast. From the time we got out of our car in the parking lot to the time we were back in our car on the way home was about 45 minutes. The actual laser procedure was probably less than a minute. My favorite part though, was that Danny had to wear these plastic bug-eye shields on his eyes for the first 24 hours and then to sleep for a week. Since he hated the way the tape felt and the sticky residue it left, he used one of my headbands and some nice pink string and rigged this together:

Very lovely, don't ya think? The procedure was a success and he now has 20/15 vision in both eyes. He loves driving down the road and reading signs at a distance and checking to see if he can see things better than I can.

We spent the last weekend of the month camping in Idaho at my annual family reunion. I loved getting away from all of the home improvement projects and real life for a weekend. Danny loved fishing...even though he didn't catch a single fish...while I enjoyed reading and we both enjoyed relaxing and spending time with the fam. This family reunion was my grandma's side (her brothers and sisters and their families - it's a pretty big group) and it was fun to see them. Her sister Carol reminds me a lot of her and it was bittersweet to be around her because her mannerisms and expressions made me think a lot about my grandma. It was a fun little trip in a beautiful spot and very refreshing to get away.

Oh and I bought a mirror...a very large mirror. I was at IKEA and I saw this gigantic mirror that I thought was so cute and would be perfect for above our stairs and it was only $100! I was excited because big mirrors like that at Pottery Barn are over $500. So I of course bought it! But then when I had the 16 year old IKEA worker take it out to the car I realized there was a problem - I was in Danny's car and not an SUV. I thought I'd just be able to put the seat down and it'd be fine. Um, not so much. The 16 year old IKEA worker suggested that I just strap it on the roof. I thought that was a fabulous idea and told him to go for it after he assured me that it would not fall off on the freeway and kill anyone. Because everyone knows that a 16 year old IKEA worker knows his stuff and one should always believe everything he says. He pulled out some straps and wrapped them around the mirror and then through the windows of the car to hold it down on the roof. As I was pullling he away he said, "I don't think that'll fall off but if it does, I'm sorry!"

So feeling very reassured I started my 45 minute drive home. I was horrified the entire drive home. People were giving me the weirdest looks as I drove along and all of the cars were giving me plenty of room. I had car leprosy. There'd be a bunch of traffic, a large gap, me, a large gap, and then another bunch of traffic. I had to call my friend Brittany because I was so embarassed and it's easier to go through something humiliating with someone there (or on the phone) than alone, right?

But, the mirror and I both made it home in one piece. When Danny came out in the garage to see the large mirror I'd told him about, he was in shock that I'd actually strap something to the roof of his car...something about scratching the paint? Fortunatly for me no damage was done and all was well.

Anyway, at the request of Brittany here is the picture of how I looked driving down the road! But it was worth it because the mirror is cute and it was cheap.

Now the next chore will be figuring out how to hang it here:

Because I'm sure I've forgotten 83% of what we actually did in July, I'll hopefully be a little better about the updates in August. We both have some fun things coming up that I'm sure we'll be posting.