Cottages, coffee, and our most favorite summertime thing

You know what is better than last night?  This night!  Our most favorite summertime thing to do as a family is sit on our deck around our fire pit, making s'mores and talking and being silly.  That is what we did for the first time of the season tonight, and it was wonderful.   All kinds of wonderful! 

Ever since the middles have gotten jobs and girlfriends and cars, we don't see nearly as much of them as we used to, and it's got this mama all wigged out sometimes.  To be honest, I don't like it.  Oh, I am proud of them and everything and I know this is part of their growing up and out from under our wings, but I'm not used to it.  I'm much happier when they are all here.  Home.  With us.  Not gone.  You get the picture. 

Well, today for most of the day we were all together (minus the two olders of course, and they are always missed).  But today, everyone who currently resides at our home was actually here at the same time and it was a little slice of heaven on earth.  It started with sleeping in, which is always a great way to start a Saturday.  Vince and I headed to town around 9:30 to do our usual Saturday morning ritual of breakfast, shopping, and coffee....iced mochas to be exact from the best coffee place in town -  Mugby Junction.  Hallo!  We had planned to get our flowers & herbs purchased and planted, but that will have to wait until tomorrow because when we got home, we got involved in projects around the house which filled up the rest of our afternoon...Vince worked on the kids' bikes and got the lawnmower running for Kyle to do the first mow of the season.  He also prepared some firewood and cleaned the grill while I swept the garage and assembled our pots and deck boxes for our planting adventure, and made a new header for my blog.  Nick went golfing with friends and then took a nap, Vinny did his own thing (as usual), Kyle got busy throwing stuff into the basketball hoop while jumping on his mini-tramp, and Hope had some friends over.  And then, possibly most exciting of all, we found the perfect non-victorian destination for our anniversary weekend!!  Thanks to my friend and fellow blogger Heather, we will be going here:  Hawks View Cottages and Lodges.  And I only have one thing to say about all this...

OH HEAVENLY DAY!! 

I'm just a tad bit excited about it.

Tomorrow will be just as wonderful...church, a trip to Pork & Plants for the best flowers in the area (I'll post pics of our creations) and another day with the middles and the youngers all home with us at the same time.  Yay! 

Some things, and some random couch ramblings

I have not moved off the couch for three hours, most of which were spent napping on Mr. Wonderful's shoulder, and I do not regret a minute of it.  He surfed the cable channels and I opened my eyes at random moments to see guys bargaining and finally settling on purchasing an old model car for $35,000...Guy Fiere eating something that looks like smoked pulled pork...and Hanibal Lector (TV version) looking and talking all creepy. 

I definitely needed a nap, aka an escape from reality, because my pre-nap reality was getting pretty crabby.

I'm not sure if it was my very busy week at work followed by evenings of running kids to and fro every single minute of every single night this week, or if it was the constant, incessant noise and demands and phone ringing since walking through the door tonight, or if it was the dog running from the front door to the back door to the front door to the back door - all while whining because Kyle was playing outside without her that caused me to nearly lose my mind.  But whatever the reason, I nearly did LOSE MY EVER-LOVING MIND tonight.  That nap was my saving grace. Along with a very smart husband who made me a Disaronno and Diet Coke and let me snooze on him while demanding absolutely nothing at all.  (Thank you, hon.)  He is very smart and knows when a woman - namely his woman - is about to blow and needs a self imposed time-out.

So.  My post-nap life now consists of continuing to sit on the couch between two of my loves...my husband and son...blogging, ignoring the tv, and wondering who farted.  All things that I do on a regular basis.  Except for the blogging.  It's been a while since I've done that, as evidenced by the Christmas theme on my blog header. 

The dubs and I have been researching bed and breakfasts lately.  We want to take a little getaway to celebrate our anniversary next month.  This process itself has proved to be kind of frustrating because we can't seem to find what we are looking for anywhere near here.  Nearly all of the B&B's in southeast MN have a Victorian theme, which we do not find appealing at all.  Overly flowery wall paper with coordinating (or not) bedding, and lots of clutter is not something either of us find relaxing or romantic.  What we have in mind is something that makes us feel like we are in a cabin in the mountains...rustic and modern with a hot tub and fireplace in the room...on a beach...with loons serenading us in the morning as we sit on our private veranda eating breakfast prepared by someone else.  And a waterfall.  Is that too much to ask?  I think not. 

Sigh. 

At this point I would settle for an overnight at the Holiday Inn...as long as it did not include spending the evening in the car, ignoring the tv or the phone ringing or a farting dog.  (The dog got blamed for the farting, of course.) 

Some more random couch ramblings...

I love Kwik Trip.  We get most of our regulars there - milk, OJ, eggs, butter, bananas, apples, bread and occasional (gross) breakfast sandwich and I have no problem with that.  But fresh meat?  Hamburger and steak and chicken?  Really Kwik Trip?  Not so sure about that.  May be just a bit out of your league. 

Microwave popcorn smells like butt.  In the year and a half that we were without a microwave and survived just fine, thank-you-very-much, I did not miss microwave popcorn at all.   Stove top popcorn is 110% better. 

I cannot wait for this movie to come out.  CAN NOT!

I have now been on the couch for the past four hours, and pretty soon I'm going to get up and go to bed and I don't feel one bit guilty.  We have a busy life and a full weekend ahead of us filled with laundry and projects and cleaning and bills and running kids to and fro and maybe planting some flowers and changing my blog header, so evenings like this are heavenly.