TGIFAINR!

translation:
thank god it's friday and it's not raining! 

really!  can you believe it?!?

spent the morning at the beach with casey the rock hound, kellen the beach flirt, and my mom.

casey was face down in the smooth rocks before we even got the blanket down. heck before we even picked a spot of our blanket!  kellen climbed rocks, then spied some pretty girls up on the rocks (older girls!  :) ) he took his towel and positioned himself up near them just ever so cutely.  he wanted their attention so badly.  it was really sweet.  we found a bunch of heart rocks to add to our treasures.  there was barely a cloud in the sky.  kellen and casey even wound up on their bellies at the edge of the surf laughing as each wave would come up and hit them from behind.   after 15 minutes of that kellen was almost blue and shivering so much it took him another 15 minutes to recover.  even wrapped up in warm towels and up against my body for extra warmth he was trembling.  man that boy was COLD! 

had to leave to give big sissy a ride to work, otherwise we certainly could have made a full day of it.  truly a welcome break in the bad weather.  we were sandy salty sweaty sticky sunkissed and happy.  have a great weekend everyone!  

golden sun on a rainy day

after 3 glorious sunny days we are back in the thick of this cold rain we seem to be cursed with.

but these, oh these are warm, and golden, and so good.

click here for the links to these wonderful photos

monday!

bench day!

my red white and bike edition

week 15

 i am still in  L O V E.

happy monday everyone!

oooooh!  bree, who does the most lovely bench monday shots, liked mine so much she featured it today on her blog too!  thanks bree!  xo

glorious reprieve

i cannot fully express how hard june has been.

words fail me.

loss and stress and sadness and rain. 

heavy heavy heavy cold relentless rains.

23 of 26 days of them.  (no joke, i heard that on the news and 3 times the average rainfall in june...3 times!)

it was getting heavy.

cabin fever was taken to new heights.

i was feeling moldy.

in a place where summer is so needed we have lost 1 full month.  june, gone.

but today.

1 day.

1 beautiful totally clear bright blue sunny warm day.

{our morning sky...  OMG!}

sunkissed skin

time on the beach

salty sandy sunny goodness.

home for baths and good naps of tired happy kids.

teenager off to work. this is a big deal since she has lost an entire month of income.  working at an outdoor amusement park doesn't fare well when all it does is rain.

then a drive into the city while the 2 in the back seat hold and kiss hands.

the sun pours in the jeep and makes halos in their hair

first stop, chowder served in bread bowls with iced tea.

then a walk to get ice cream where we find a street musician singing and playing the banjo so beautifully.  kids just start dancing. 

and a sunset drive home.  a sunset,  meaning a full day of sunshine! 

ok i dearly hope-plead-pray-wish we do not have to go another 23 days without it. 

that would just be cruel.  i think we have earned at least 1 week of good summer weather.

please summer stay!  please.  it feels so good.

fireworks!

{my town}

growing up, fireworks were an annual party on or around july 4th i remember well.

the anticipation.

the wanting to get a good seat at the local community days festival.

laying out a blanket and waiting with my family and friends for that first boom they would shoot off.  no color, just a warning boom to announce the fireworks are coming!  as a teenager, i always seemed to work on fireworks day, but the anticipation was still as great. the restaurant would empty out right before so we would all crawl up on the restaurant roof to get a view.

we would all sit at attention, face toward the sky, bodies silhouetted by the exploding lights, ooohing and aaahing with every pop!  some plugging their ears,  each excitedly pointing out our favorite kind: "oh i like the waterfall ones",   "i love the big round ones", "oh how about the ones that crackle?!?!"  yes! yes! yes!

all that build up for something so fleeting, yet never disappointing.  i think only having them once a year where i grew up, they really did it pretty big for the suburbs.  

now i live far from that place of my memories.

we have no  traveling carnivals, rather we have a seasonal carnival in our own backyard so to speak.  it is strange living in a town that people come and go each week, and then at the end of summer empties out like a ghost town.  but one really special thing we have are weekly fireworks.  each thursday night we can gather ourselves and  make the trek down toward the carnival or beach,  take our place among the travelers, and neighbors, and gaze skyward for a mini fireworks display.  it hasn't seemed to have lost its anticipation factor even though we know we get 8 weeks of them. (weather permitting) 

kellen starts the day's dialogue by lunchtime: if we are going and when,  i tell him at least 45 times that day yes honey, if it doesn't rain honey, at 9:30pm kellen, yes , no not now, soon, no its not dark yet, no it's not 9pm yet, really, i promise, soon.   he gets so anxious about it, it can't be missed, mommy you are going to miss them!!!!!!!!!   :)) 

 i see he loves them just as much as i did that summer day when i was a kid.  i like how universal and timeless it all seems.  how no matter how much life has changed, some things  truly remain the same.   

happy 4th of july weekend everyone.

so what is your favorite???

mine?  the waterfall ones.   :)

love thursday hey!

{besties: aka dorks}

i figured it was a good day for a catching up post.

i have made some good progress on the list.

• #1 done, minus the basket to hold something lovely.  i still need to find one of those.  i haven't gotten much riding in except for up and down our block a few times.  the brake lines need replacing.  so a little tlc and i hope to ride her to the beach and back real soon,  that is if it ever stops raining.  and to be quite honest i am starting to doubt we will ever see the warm sun again.  
  
• #4  done,  my eldest turned 16 in may and we had a sweet 16 party just for her.
• #5 definitely done and then some.  earlier this year i met the beautiful dani.  then i got to meet cynthia, joel, summer, cole AND jodi in philly at a flickr meet.  (that was so fun) and just last week i met karen and her crew while  they were vacationing in our wet state of maine.  so i have more than doubled my number from meeting 3 flickr friends this year,  to 7 thus far!  and i still have another 6 months til my birthday.  who knows how many i may meet by then?   i have a few on the books already.  dawn will be coming to maine in fall, and a possible meet in coney island with a bunch of flickr peeps may happen soon too. then i can also check off #37 by riding the coaster there, and ooooooh and i bet they have photobooths!  we must all squeeze in one if they do, AND i can attempt # 17 (win at whack a mole)  too!!!   
• #9, take a photobooth strip, complete!  (photo at top of this post)  i got off the train at market east in philly, met my best friend,  walked up the steps to the street, and there to my delight was a photobooth right inside the big glass windows at K-mart no less!  i spied it right away and my best friend and i happily got out our dollars and each bought a strip!  that little strip makes me SO happy.  we laughed SO hard!  it was the perfect find that day.  
• #16 clicked by the wonderful fun zany cynthia.  thanks girl!  XO  

i also have many works in progress: #8, #18, #33, #37   chugging along... 

 i have also dropped the ball on a few like #7 (date night with hubby)  we were doing great on those but illnesses and life got us a bit off track  i DO so hope to get back to those.  they were really nice and needed.  and # 24 (plant a mini garden with kellen and casey)  i never actually put anything in the ground.  we did a bunch of large planters for our edibles but all this cold rain and no sunlight and they are all now doing the backstroke outside.  :((

i do hope the tomatoes will survive, but root rot seems inevitable.  

it was good to revisit the list today and see i have made some progress.

i also know some things will not come to fruition this year, but having goals or dreams in print has proved motivating and satisfying.  

did anyone else make a list? 

finding time to squeeze things in? 

happy love thursday!  XO

update: skunk & pie

lol when do you ever get to type those words?  '"skunk & pie"  HA!

anyhoooooo  

skunk smell~ gone.

YAY!!!!!!!!

pie ~ also gone.

BOO!!!!!!!!

***hubby was so right i should have made 2.   :)

i played a fun flickr game just now.  wanna play?

5 easy questions:

1. favorite color?
   
2. how you feel right now?
   
3. something you thought about today?
   
4. the time right now?
   
5. where you are (this can be the actual place or just 'home' etc.)?
   

to answer these you must go to the little search box and enter a one word answer, then search only your contacts!
have fun!

my answers look like this:

1.yellow~2.hungry~3.sunshine~4. 5pm~5. my fave chair