Play time

We took advantage of the cooler and less humid weather last evening to drive out past Purcellville to the large park and playground. With a newborn arriving in the summer months, I've been sequestered inside with the AC and it was good to get out.

Shade Tea

Well, this had been sun tea up until noon when my covered balcony became cool and shady. Not that it matters. I once had neighbors who put out their tea jar at night to make "moon tea". I was eight or so years old and gullible enough to believe the moon beams brewed the tea.

When we can't get out

We won't be camping this summer with the terrible heat index, humidity and the babies. The new tent we got for a steal at a yard sale will have to wait in the closet a while longer. I suppose we could do a backyard camp out at my parents where the climate is more tolerable, though it may not be feasible smack in the middle of the wedding. Maybe a sleeping bag dragged onto the second story porch? So, the alternative to real summer escapes has been to escape into summer books. All my reading has been done while nursing Anne and Adrian (needless to say I've spent a LOT of time nursing this summer), pleased with another attempt at that two birds, one stone thing.

Not traveling back to Michigan yet this summer makes me feel cooped up and antsy. Reading others outdoor accounts and studying diagrams on knots and camping tips probably isn't helping that antsy to get outside feeling. I'd like to get out to the Catoctins in the fall or spring, sometime before we move but not in this heat!

Mary's quilt

Here is a glimpse of the quilt-in-progress for Mary and Bob's wedding, I will not have it completed on time but I'll print a photo for them to go along with the pillows and coasters I made earlier (and sent off to my mom's without taking any photos! I need to remember to take pictures of them when I'm in Michigan before the wedding day). The quilt fits on the top of my queen size bed, but it's intended as a large lap quilt to have handy near a couch or porch, something big enough to wrap around you or sit on top of.

My own belated 28th

I turned 28 two days ago. Skirting close to 30, feel like 16, and will tell everyone I'm 25 like Grandpa Van Galen did until his own children became 25 along with him. The above cake was from the 5th of July, when family was over to celebrate three summer birthdays. Company is now gone, and so is my 9-year-old. He flew with my youngest sister to my parents in Michigan for over 3 weeks of grandparent fun. Martin and I will fly out with the babes in August for my middle sister's wedding and to reclaim my oldest child.

For the 15th, I made taco salad and lemon cheesecake bars and took Anne to the pool. We spend the hottest parts of the day inside, fill the time with nursing, naps and chores, get outside in the cooler early morning for walks and to the pool in the evening. Our family just isn't cut out for southern living, and we are hardly south.

My husband is applying to jobs in Helena, Montana in hopes we might move out there to be with his dad and brother this fall before we have to sign another year's lease here. Because we are over-occupancy in the current location, we have to move to a bigger place in September - after we just moved last year! Otherwise, we'd be able to go month-to-month with rent and it wouldn't matter when Martin found a position in Montana, but with moving to a bigger place, it's another year's lease agreement. Urgh! So, we get lucky and head west by September 14 or stay in Virginia another year. At least we will not have the time constriction next year, we will not be bound with lease agreements after Sept. '09.

We knew we did not want to settle down in our current location, and renting has done us well for the 3 to 5 years we planned to stay here. Martin and I want to stay and settle in the next place we go, and we've done a lot of consideration about where - near family in Michigan or Wisconsin or Montana? Someplace new like Colorado or New England? Washington state where I once lived? Canada sounds nice.... We've decided on being close to family, and there were many other factors that draw us out west opposed to our beloved Great Lakes area. Too many and too personal to go into, but we also joked that we'll just swap houses with my sister for vacations as she and her soon-to-be husband have relocated to L'Anse in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. So, everything is in limbo at the moment. We have to move, but will it be 200 feet away or 2,000 miles?

Life at home