Happy 4th!

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! Besides working Saturday and on the holiday, I can't complain. And honestly, I can't complain at all. I took a long lunch yesterday to go to my neighborhood's parade, which I love. This is the third year I have went and really think it's super sweet. Gotta love long-standing traditions and this parade has been around a lot longer than I have. Also, when I went into the hospital yesterday, one of my patients, who had a stroke yesterday morning, said, "Thank you so much for coming to work to help me on the holiday. Who has a stroke on the 4th of July? I am supposed to be at a bbq." She was super sweet and full of life. She is an 88-year-old that drives 30 miles 3 times a week for yoga, so clearly a motivated spirit.

Anyway, my sis is here from Texas and we've had lots of family time! And LOTS of good food! My cousin made some homemade vanilla ice cream, which was awesome and seems so appropriate for summer. Here are a few pictures. I'm off today and going to the pool with my sister when she's done running errands....wish the weekend could go on forever!

A homemade American pie and the United States flag on my house....what's more American than that?

This is me with my mom, sister and cousin at the parade. The other picture is one of my good friend's kids who walked in the parade. They were pretty excited about it!

Here and There...

I have clearly done a lack of blogging recently. I think I am in full summer mode, including going to BBQs, pool parties and a couple of trips. In May, my parents, sister and I went to San Antonio. We stayed on the Riverwalk and had a great time. We enjoyed a bit of shopping at the outlet mall, ate some great food and even saw the Alamo. Here are a couple pictures:

A couple weeks ago, I packed a few outfits in a carry-on bag and jumped on a plane with some friends from work for my friend Megan's bachelorette party in Vegas. And fun, did we have! The 48 hours we spent there were crammed with exploring the strip, video poker, laying out at the pool, shopping and the very popular Thunder Down Under male strip show....it was pretty crazy and entertaining at the least! We had a great time and I look forward to going to Megan's wedding the end of July....here's some evidence of the fun that took place:

Unplugged.

When I moved into my house a month ago and I made the decision to wait on getting cable until new TV comes on this fall (can hardly wait). So, not that I would normally be trying to watch a lot of TV in the summer, but like many of us, I have the tendency to get sucked into shows or reruns that I don't really even care about. It's amazing how much more time I have....and how quiet it is! And if you have ever spent any amount of time with me, you probably know that quiet isn't really my thing. Kind of refreshing. Anyway, so with this new freedom of being TV-less, I have had more time for some activities that I have really enjoyed and some that I have needed to complete. Such as:

I have been able to really enjoy my hammock that I bought when I moved. Lots of summer reading here, including "Breaking Dawn" that I just started, which is the fourth book in the Twilight series.

Tonight I took the time to finally pull a BUNCH of weeds in some flowers/trees. This is actually my neighbor's property but it's on the outside of her fence and land that she can't see. The lady I bought my house from planted all of this stuff and she took care of it....so I am trying to get it together and follow suit. Wish I had a before picture of how bad it looked! I got two HUGE bags of weeds out.

Last week my parents gave me this cookbook.....that is pretty fantastic. I have spent a fair amount of time drooling over the recipes and trying to figure out an occasion that will pass as a good excuse to use something from it. Stand-by for hopefully some shared recipes from here!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summers too! :)

Up close and personal....

My mom's friend's friend (if that makes sense) got free tickets to the Sara Evans concert that was at the casino north of Topeka. We got seats on the 3rd row and it was AWESOME! During the encore, I got to go up in front of the stage and literally could have touched her leg (I didn't cause pretty sure that it's not recommended). During the concert, she shared that her younger brother and two sisters are in her band, her brother as a guitarist and her sisters as her back-up singer. Pretty successful family act if you ask me....maybe we should have done this Meg?! Very glad to see one of country's best in person! Here are a couple pictures:

4th of July Celebration!

So, when I moved into my house, I became a part of Topeka called "Collins Park" because I live about a block or so from a park called "Collins Park." Well, each year the neighborhood has a parade on the morning of the 4th. My parents and our friend Sandy went for the first time. It's pretty stinkin' cute. All the neighborhood kids dress up in their best patriotic gear, there are a couple bands, including some bag pipes, and decorated vehicles. Here are some pictures....

After the parade, we went to my parents' house for bbq and later that night I went to my neighbor/friend/co-worker's Sarah's for fireworks. Here are pictures of me with Sarah and her two youngest kids.

Connected.

Where to start?! I have been computer-free at my house for several weeks and FINALLY got my computer cord in the mail yesterday (mine stopped working, so the computer wouldn't charge). Since I haven't really posted for almost a month and it has been a busy month of summer, I will try to do an overview.

To back up, I will start with my Topeka "Stay-ca-tion" the last week of June. My sis was in town from Dallas and we found lots of fun here, along with me getting moved into my house....more on that another time. The week went by of course too quickly, but we had a great time. We saw 3 movies: "The Proposal", "The Hangover" and "My Sister's Keeper", all very good but differnt types of shows for sure. I pretty much cried during the entire showing of "My Sister's Keeper"...quite a mess, but just a pretty big fan of my own sister. We also found one day to go lay out at the pool at our parents' new neighborhood pool, which was fun, although I'm not too sure how effective for my see-through skin.

Here are some pictures of the eventful week of family time....

During this week was also my parents' 30th wedding anniversary. On the day of, we went to KC and did some shopping, ate at "The Yard House" and went to a Royals game.

The next day, we went to dinner at a restaurant here in Topeka called "The Row House" and it was SO good! Wednesdays are their sample nights and for each of the 7 courses, they bring you a little taste. It's in an old row house (hence, the name) downtown and is close to the capital building that you can see in the background in one of the pics. Very cool building and good food.

Also, for my parents' anniversary, Megan and I had a card shower for them and their friends and some family sent cards to Meg. We gave them all of the cards in this box- they were definitely surprised!

I also made a quilt for them to have to remember their anniversary. Not sure how much my dad will cuddle up with it while he is watching sports, but I enjoyed making it for them. :)

Lastly, I have to brag about my sister's unselfish helping during her week off. What a trooper!Here is my carpenter in front of the two bookshelves and desk that she put together for me. I got them at Target and then next day she had all of the manual labor done. Thanks Meg, I promise our next vacation with involve less hammers and nails!! :)

Week of Freedom.

I am off work. All week. With my favorite people. My sis is here from Dallas and of course my parents. I got my furniture moved in my house today (thanks to the movers, best money I have ever spent) and am getting settled in. I will update with pictures...looking forward to a week of relaxing- pool, movies, shopping. :)

2-1...

Tonight we had our 3rd softball game....played at some of the newer diamonds in town that are really beautiful. There is nothing better than going to the softball fields on a gorgeous summer night like tonight, with kids running around the playground, bubble gum and the sound of bats connecting with incoming pitches. We won 10-5, so this brings our record to 2 wins and 1 loss. I can't claim that I had a lot to do with this victory, but I stood in right field and threw a ball in that rolled to me one time. :) I need to go to the batting cages as I tend to be off with my hits....you know it's bad when the catcher on the other team is giving you a pep talk!! I think we have 8 or 9 more games to go this summer, so hopefully I can get it in gear, but I'm just glad to be out enjoying the nice weather; as long as no one hits it to me. ;) Happy Summer!!

Bloomin'

This week my parents' flowers around their house have really started to bloom and tonight I was noticing how pretty they are....thought I would share. I also bought some white roses at Sam's and have been pleased with how they have turned out. Hopefully you are all having good things growing in your corners of the world. :)

You know it's summer when....

...my mom makes a fruit pizza! Mmm.....it was in honor of my little sis being home for about a 12 hour period on the way to a wedding in Salina, KS. Pretty tasty. :)

Batter up!

Last night was my first softball game in a co-rec league here in Topeka. Our name is the "Big Whiffers"....it's a team that my mom's co-worker's daughter organized, if that makes sense. It's mainly teachers that she works with at a local high school. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I look forward to our games on Thursday thoughout the summer (especially now that Greys is over). I got on base with singles 4 out of 5 times (struck out the other time). I really like to bat. I however, do NOT like to be in the field. I used to play first, which was good, but a guy that has been on this team in prior years claimed it. So, I marched out to right field I (which is good cause not as many balls are hit there). In fact, only one ball was hit there all night. Therefore, I only threw a ball one time. We were tied 10-10 going into the last inning and ended up losing 17-14. Better luck next time!

Where does the weekend go?!?

So, I had a very fun-filled weekend, but it seems like my days off go by twice as fast as when I am at work! Saturday morning I finally went to the Farmers Market "on the west side" of town. So worth it!! My friends Jenna and Jeremy wanted to go to, so we made the trip over and got some great produce! I got some corn at Gattert's stand and it's really good! Also got a cantelope at Beck's and it is very tasty as well. Got a variety of tomatoes and peaches and so far, the ones I have tried are really good. Very impressed!

Then Saturday night, my friend Lindsay and I went to the K-State Alumni beer tasting and had a lot of fun. It was all Sam Adams and they catered Jet's BBQ, which was pretty good. It was quite the diverse crowd and we met some really nice fellow K-Staters. After the event, we met our friend Kylie to see "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants II". It was good, but probably not worth the $9 we each paid.

Today I went to see my friend Dan, who was a patient at the nursing home I worked at when I first moved here. After a few months in an assisted living facility, he returned to his own home in May and I go see him every few weeks and take him to dinner. Today I made another peach pie and took it there. We went to Village Inn, played some cards and then had a little pie (we were pretty full from dinner!)...he is such a sweet person and always appreciative of having company. I value our friendship and he also makes me realize how lucky I am for all that I have, as many of his friends and family have passed away. It's always good to see him! Here are a couple pics from the weekend:

Jenna at the market.

All of my good finds at the market...yum!

My friend Dan all ready to go to dinner.