August Ramblings
25 August 2017
Well, howdy there! Time to play Catch-Up again, apparently! I've had time to edit photos and such, thus making it more likely I'll actually blog about them..!
First, did your community or neighborhood participate in 2017's National Night Out? Ours did! I was so excited when our Neighborhood Watch captain, Gladys, told us it would be happening in the summertime, way back in March or April when first we met her. We've never been to one before, but I always wanted to live in the kind of place that had block parties and closeness. This event totally fit the bill, so I got to cross that one off the Bucket List!
The police came out (and yes, I know he's quite handsome, hahaha), the paramedics drove an ambulance out here, and we also had a fire truck! All this was a bit too late for my older kids to enjoy exploring all the innards of the vehicles anymore, but the little ones in the neighborhood sure had a good time with it. And Rob chatted up the two motorcycle officers who came a little later, about... well, hell if I know.
Almost the entire neighborhood came out, from our tip of the cul-de-sac to the street around the corner. We had dozens of folks. Our hosts cooked the main dish (no idea what it was, because it was meaty, meaty meatstuff), and everyone brought a side of some sort. We contributed pasta salad, but oh! Someone made Ambrosia Salad, a blast from the past for me, and I ate three helpings of it. No lie. I love that stuff. The best part for me, though, was getting to know more people. I had a lot of long, wonderful conversations with several neighbors I hadn't met before, and the feeling of connectedness was just grand. Ahhh.
The next fun thing arrived in the mail: my latest Young Living order included some of our new Savvy Minerals line of cosmetic products. I bought a Foundation Powder, a Bronzer, and a really pale pink (almost neutral, basically) eyeshadow. To be honest, none were the shades I would have picked if everything I wanted had been in stock, but I kid you not, these items are flying off the shelves. They can't keep them in stock long enough for everyone to get some! However, I've found that with blending and a little contouring, and combining these three items with my beloved JAFRA cosmetics, the ones I bought work just fine and dandily for me. Plus, look at the beautiful way they packaged everything, complete with a note of thanks. So fancy-schmancy! I gotta admit, this made me a little giddy. Brought out my girly side, that's for sure.
I got my haircut right about that same day, so the next day of course, I had to try the new Young Living Savvy Minerals items and see how I could make it work. I loved it! The foundation goes on very sheer, and though it was darker than my natural skin tone (which could be called "Whiter White Than You Can Imagine Possible"), I was able to blend that with the bronzer to create, I feel, a natural and healthy glowing look. And the fairly neutral pink eyeshadow was perfect for a casual daytime look. I really only had to add JAFRA Maximizing Mascara and a nude lip gloss to complete the look I wanted. What do you think? (Not really trying to sell you anything, but if you need something, here's my site.)
A rare look at Chloë holding her Maine Coon kitty, Pepper... oh wait, no. That's a constant sight around here. He's such a pudge. <3
On August 8th, we went out to Meridian's Food Truck night at Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park. We'd been to that park before, but it's so huge, we hadn't even seen the parking area where the food truck event was being held. Meridian is just one town over from Boise, so not far at all; the park was right down the road from where the kids' pediatrician office is, actually. Apropos of nothing, I guess. Anyway, we met my friend Becca - from the blog Becca's Backyard - at the park to get some eats. We arrived there before Becca, so I had plenty of time to grab a snap of Chloë in front of some of the food trucks. There ended up being about a dozen or so. A good showing, albeit not as grand as I'd expected. Plenty of choices just the same.
I was in tons of pain that night, so I forgot to take any pictures of the food. I know; what the hell is wrong with me?!! :O Fortunately, I stole Becca's pictures off of Facebook to do a little peep show for ya; you can thank me later. (Thank you, Becca!)This is a pizza in a cone, which was... interesting. Hers was pepperoni; mine was plain cheese. Both were extremely delicious, but kind of a cumbersome, huge mess to actually try to eat without looking like a complete buffoon. Was it worth it? Hmm... YES! It's pizza, duh, and this one was actually one of the better ones I've had lately.
For the rest of the bunch, there were soft tacos (Jack, who ate them with tortilla and ground beef, and that's IT as usual), fish tacos for Robert, and Mac Attack's spicy macaroni & cheese for the girls. I don't like it (the spicy mac), but the ladybabies could chow down on that every night and twice on Sundays. As for dessert, everyone except me had a churro of some sort. Sophia had ice cream with hers. This one is Becca's Nutella-filled one. How yummy does that look? I refrained from stealing a piece from her, but man, it looked good.
So moving on... recently, we (Rob) realized that the giant maple tree in the middle of our tree had some dead limbs. He told our landlord, J., who then sent half a dozen or so "tree guys" out to look at it, make recommendations, and give quotes. In the final analysis, the tree had to come down, because it was a danger to anyone who might be out there when it wanted to fall on its own: it was a complete goner. The tree had a huge personality and was a defining spot in our yard, so now that they've taken it out and ground down the stump to utter nothingness, I'm a little sad. Obviously, I'm also relieved that no one was hurt or, y'know, crushed to death. And the yard looks soo much more expansive and open now. But, trees. I love them. Right??
This past Thursday, the local Natural Grocers store (think: all organic, everyone hippy-dippy granola-crunchyface... so I liked it a lot!) was having a big ol' fête for their 62nd anniversary. Truthfully, we had never been there, but they were having a supposed ice cream social, root beer floats, giveaways, and all kinds of other fun stuff. Jack opted out of going; he's not a people-person, so we let him stay home. (Chill; he's 14.)
When we got there, we were immediately greeted by an older gent offering organic strawberry samples. Those were delicious! We made our way around to the back of the store, where the Demonstration Room was located. See these cups the girls are holding? That little bitty bit in the bottom of the cups was all they received. I mean, beggars can't be choosers and you don't look a gift horse in the mouth and all kinds of other fun idioms, but come ON! That was lame.
However, I'd come prepared. I had the current ad at home, and I'd dug around all over the internet for coupons. I only had eight bucks on me at the time, and with that, I managed to get a Crofter's Organic Raspberry Spread (which is delish, btw); a big bag of SkinnyPop popcorn; a full-size Endangered Species chocolate-lemon-poppy seed bar; a can of Muir Glen organic sauce; an 8-oz block of Organic Valley mozzarella cheese; a 6-pack of Applegate Farms turkey hot dogs; and I still walked out of there with two bucks in my pocket. Woot! To top it off, we stopped off at Whole Paycheck Foods on the way home to get a $5 jug of Ripple Kids pea-based dairy-free milk, for which I only paid tax thanks to another coupon from them. Awesome!
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So, I wrote this post a week ago and never finished it. I'm going to leave this as it is and then do another later. Until then!
Fin.