Summer Happenings

How's that for a creative title?

With school out for summer, I have been surprisingly busy (even after all the craziness in the last post). Last week I spent a couple days with my sister-in-law, Kelly, helping her get settled into her new apartment here in Dallas. I wish we had taken before and after pictures because we got a decent amount of stuff hung - including curtains - which entailed using a drill and anchors and screws (so what if we ended up putting a couple extra holes in the wall in the process).

Friday was Matt's birthday, so most of the week was spent gearing up for his birthday celebrations :) We had originally planned to have our friends James and Kaylan over for dinner on Thursday, but apparently being out of school has ruined my ability to keep a calendar in my head because I forgot that I had agreed to babysit on Thursday night. So, James and Kaylan came over on Matt's actual birthday instead -- and I made all of Matt's favorite desserts. I started with orange pear salad (which is like a jello/fruit salad- and I add pineapples so I guess I should call it orange pear pineapple salad), next I made 7-layer bars (although I couldn't find flaked coconut, so they were technically just 6-layer bars), and last I made cupcakes with Allison's recipe for cream cheese icing! I would post pictures of the dessert montage, only Matt has already eaten all of the fruit salad, half of the 7 layer bars and about 2/3 of the cupcakes. If only I had thought ahead to take before/after pictures ;)

Enough about my husband's eating habits -- we also bought a grill on Saturday, which we are super excited about! Here she is -
We are having a few friends over this coming weekend to "break-in" our house, and a grill was a must for a summer-time gathering. We tested it out last night by grilling hot dogs for dinner -- it is amazing how much better a hot dog tastes after being on the grill versus just the microwave!

We have a few updates on the house as well -- I'll post those when I have more time to upload pictures. I need to get back to my coursework for my certification. Speaking of, I did find out last week, after a few days of anxiously waiting, that I passed my EC-4 test! One step closer -- now if I could just find a teaching position!