Zucchini

From the time I was little, my mom always tells about how their first garden in this house grew monster zucchini. I planted a garden this year, a little late but it's just starting to show what we'll be eating fresh here in a week or so.
Yeah. A lot of zucchini, lol. So I'm sure I'll find some inventive ways to prepare it. I'm not a fan of zucchini bread or muffins. I don't like it sweet. I like it with garlic and olive oil or mixed in with spaghetti. Not sure what the kids will think, lol.
I'm making my corn-stuffed tomatoes for dinner tonight and I might try adding zucchini next time. Or stuffing the dang zucchini, lol. If anyone has any other ideas, I'm willing to try just about anything.
And just beware. If you come to visit in the next month, you may be sent away with a gift from the garden, haha.

sniffle, hack, cough

I hate summer colds! It started with a slight sore throat, then a cough, minor laryngitis, and now it's sneezing and blowing my nose all the time. It's a gorgeous day outside. I had things to do today. But today was the most miserable I've been since this all started.
Thankfully none of the kids are sick and they've all been great, playing outside and having fun with their cousins.
Hopefully this goes away soon, been 4 days now. I had about 3 weeks of colds/allergies in the spring and was hoping to not deal with it again this year. It must be stress that is making me more prone to getting sick this year.
What's worse is with my husband gone, I sitll have to do all the housework and yardwork, deal with the kids, and cook. I just want to curl up in bed and watch stupid tv shows all day but I have to stay downstairs to keep an eye on things.

In his own time (but finally!)

My son is himself. He's stubborn. Those that know him, know this, lol. He is almost 11 and never learned to ride a 2 wheeler. He had one with training wheels for a while and rode it all the time. I took off the training wheels, he fell a few times and gave up. Refused to try. So I gave the bike to my friend's son. Too big for him but my nephew needed a bigger bike so Hunter got Robert's, Robert got Andy's.
Well, we've kinda been asking him if he wanted a bigger bike to learn to ride. His best friend has one and rides to school. Andy always rode his scooter around with his friend. I think when I got my new bike the other day, he finally realized he should do it. All 3 sisters know how to ride so he was the last hold out.
Well, I guess after riding his scooter around the block with his two sisters and cousin on bikes, he and Bethy got to work. They secretly had him practicing on Bethy's hot pink mountain bike out back, lol. Well, he got it!! They came running up yelling that he did it. I wish I'd gotten it on tape with him on the pink bike, lol.

So since Daddy is still home on leave they are now shopping together for Andy's new wheels. And now that I have a bike, the 4 kids and I can all go on bike rides together now. I'm pretty excited about this, especially with gas prices. Too bad it's dark out now and we're going to Cedar Point tomorrow. That means no more riding til after Daddy is gone again. Next summer however, all 6 of us will be cruisin around town on our bikes.

This is how it should be

The news is on. My kids are watching cartoons while I make supper. My husband is folding laundry in the dining room. This is normal life around here at 6pm on a monday night.

Mark returned home a few days ago for his R&R from deployment. It has been very nice having him home. We had a big bbq for the 4th and had our families over for that. My parents and grandfather excluded as they are on their annual summer excursion in the camper.

Yeah it will suck next week when he leaves again but we don't dwell on that because it takes away from the fun of having him here. Hopefully we'll still get to Cedar Point and maybe the Toledo Zoo as well. He and I are escaping for some "quality time" for an overnight later this week. Our anniversary was the day before he got home so we're going out to celebrate that. Dinner, movie, jacuzzi room, etc.

Originally when he deployed we were told no R&R so I'm very happy to have him here.

Happy Anniversary

Today is my 13th wedding anniversary. I won't hear from my husband today but that is ok. He's on his way home for R&R and might be here in about 24 hours. Yay!