Farewell to July

Summer is almost over! Gi's preschool starts again in August and pretty soon we will find ourselves back in the daily routine of school, music class, gym class, repeat so I wanted to get at least a little update on here about what the last month has been like for us.

We celebrated 5 years of marriage this month and spent about two weeks celebrating. We saw an India Arie concert for free and took a couple date nights out for dinner as well as a weekend at the Resort at Squaw Creek with the kids. There we enjoyed hot tubbing, rollerskating, visiting high camp and a simply DE-lish meal at the PlumpJack, where Diego the bartender from Argentina served me up a concoction of Gin and gin and more gin and some juices and liqueurs that I can't recall but which left me tingly and happy and perfectly primed for the 5 star meal that followed. I'm officially over my reluctance to embrace Squaw for fear of being relegated as one of "those" pretentious types. The resort and the restaurant there were nothing short of amazing and totally deserved of the hype. Sadly or happily, we had so much fun I only have photos of Gi on a pony ride and Noa and Gi in the pool. For once I did not document the experience as I was immersed in the enjoyment of it!

On the home front we finally decided to finish our basement which was framed but not insulated or finished when we first bought the house. We are horrible contractor shoppers so we interviewed someone who came highly recommended to us and when the price was what we were thinking of spending we okayed the job on the spot. Our plans for an extension and bathroom got nixed due to budget but we ended up with a 224 sq. ft space with 12ft ceilings, a wide door to access the rest of the under-house and a new storage platform that now features the wood shelves that were tacked onto the walls of the original room. The contractor put in a glulam beam to support the weight of the master bedroom floor and took out the two 2x4 posts that were taking up center space in the room. That leaves us with a bright, airy, totally insulated and drywalled guest room/exercise room/craft room. All that is left is to paint, mount the ceiling fan, find some mini spotlights, buy window shades and get a friend to do the tile work for cash. Botta bing! We're in business for the holidays and all the family we'll have staying with us.

Here are some pics of the finished room and storage under the house:

Blueberries!

Today the kids and I met up with our friends at the blueberry patch. This is the first I've heard of a u-pick blueberry patch in the area, even after being here for 3 summers now. It goes to show how long it really does take to settle into a neighborhood!

The weather has been super warm lately but today was only forecast to be in the 80's so we chanced it and headed out early. Sunscreen on the kids, hats in place, let the sweat fest commence! We were greeted by Gloria, a sun-battered and very knowledgeable woman. She led us by the hand to the closest blueberry bush and demonstrated clean picking technique (use two hands and leave the bucket on the ground), how to gently move the branches so as not to break them, what colors were considered ripe for each variety we would encounter and so on. Armed with this knowledge and knowing full well the kids would go ahead and commit fruit picking sins right and left immediately, we gamely headed into row 10.

Turns out the first thing you really must do when visiting a blueberry patch and trying to pick berries before the midday sun drives you out of there is find the nearest port-a-potty for your three-year-old. Then, having dispensed of such mundane tasks, you should trek back to your row of berry heaven, put the baby on the ground and proceed to rip off as many blueberries as you can, paying no attention to Gloria's ideas of color ripeness or the delicate plants themselves as you race to fill the bucket before the baby fills her stomach with soft, damp dirt. If she only manages a few handfuls, dust her chubby fingers off and relocate her to another patch of ground. This time, place a few obstacles in her path to keep her on the grass and then resume your berry "picking". Now you are just blindly slapping your palms at anything larger than the size of a pencil eraser, hoping to fill your bucket with at least these smaller specimens because you can grab handfuls of them at a time. Now look over and see your baby hasn't moved.

Congratulate yourself on that minor miracle until you notice the green grass hanging out of her mouth and the two fists more on their way in. Put the baby back in your Ergo carrier and sweat out another 20 minutes with this wiggling 20lb. mass trying to stick her hands in your bucket, in your mouth, in the bushes, in your toddler's mouth, in your toddler's hair, down your shirt, and the air in general. Wave to someone you know who just arrived to pick berries (it's a small town and this happens CONSTANTLY), gesticulate madly about how hot it is, how yummy the fruit is (and consequently how little you have managed to put in your bucket having been waylaid by your mouth) and negotiate with your toddler to have her bend over and get the car keys that have now slipped from your pocket to the ground for the 10th time in 10 minutes. Make it to the car wrangling all your tired, sweaty, thirsty progeny, yourself and your pittance of blueberries. Now go to your friend's house to decompress and gorge on the fruit of your labors. The kids fall asleep way past their usual nap time but when they wake up Papa is already home from work, early on a Friday. Hand the kids off to him and plead heat stroke or insanity or both. Mission Accomplished! Now I am going to go put some blueberries on my ice cream and go to bed.  Who knows what's in store for the weekend after a day like today!