12 on July 12th

What a weird weather day....

We woke up this morning to the rumbling of thunder (and it woke us up during the night, too). Pouring rain ensued:



We received almost 2 inches, according to Froggie:


The rain subsided, and I decided to weed around the pond - weeds are much easier to pull out of the ground when the earth is moist - right after a good rain is the best time. Plus, the weeds are simply out of control:


The end result, three hours later - I did some general pruning, weeded the beds in the front year and cleaned the water lilies out of the pond. I haven't worked out in the garden in at least a month (hence the weeds) and it felt good to smell the earth and get all dirty.


By noon, the sky was blue, the sun shining and any traces of the morning's rain forgotten - it felt like a normal July day. The water lilies enjoyed soaking in the sun:


And like any normal Saturday, there was laundry to do: [Erica wanted me to include the smiley ball with the laundry baskets]


And I journeyed out to the grocery store to acquire food for the coming week. The best thing about summer is the luscious berries available, and this week, even the blueberries were on sale:


But even with stuff on sale, the week's grocery bill topped $100. Last year our average weekly bill was around $80. [And I don't even want to talk about how much it costs to fill up the Tahoe these days]


Around 4pm, as I was getting ready to light the grill and put on the flank steak for dinner, the weather turned again - the black clouds gave way to more thunder, whipping winds and downpours again. We received another inch of rain! I ended up broiling the steak inside.


Hannah watched the rain on the pond from her perch in the family room.


Brian enjoyed some popcorn while watching Alvin and the Chipmunks


I spent a little time finishing up a layout from Easter of 2007. My scrapping space has changed a little - I have a little more table space, thanks to an old island counter top. It was the original counter top for our kitchen island, and back in 2002, we replaced it with a bigger top. The old counter top then took up residence in the garage for the next 6 years. I tried to sell it at the garage sale, and when it didn't sell, I decided to place it on top of my existing 6' table. The top is much wider than the table underneath, and it gives me much more working space. Plus the surface is nice and smooth (and not that ugly brown from the 80's). So I am enjoying the little upgrade:


That's all for today - we are expecting more thunderstorms tonight, and I hope they aren't too loud!