Summer...

...is all about this:

Even if SoCal has yet to top 82 degrees this whole summer and the water is freezing.

=0)

Mid August

This has nothing to do with anything, but isn't this picture kinda freaky? I took it last weekend of that guy that I like so much (who was driving in front of me and was, just so you know, stopped at a stoplight at the time) and upon closer inspection, it looks like he is going to hit that car.

Just thought I'd share.

The youngest shrub (yet another side note...our last name is Busch, so we call our kids shrubs. Get it?) asked for plain 'ole spaghetti and gravy the other night and because I like him, I made it.

I was happy until I pulled it out of my oven and it had exploded not just inside the oven but on top of the stove, too.

Lovely.

The biggest greatest part of this week...my BFF's (best friends forever) are now BFF's.

What more could a girl ask for?

Tammy and her daughter and Sheila and her daughter....sigh.

We've spent night after night drinking wine and dancing in the backyard and laughing and reminiscing.

Chris and Tammy were our upstairs neighbors in CU Boulder's family housing while we were in school and poor and having babies...girls for them, boys for us.

It's been a great week...and it's not even over yet.

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Oh, and I won a giveaway and got lots of Starbucks coffee delivered to my door. Thanks, Anna!

And on this Wednesday morning while I was trying to package up a bunch of jewelry orders AND do some laundry AND make some work phone calls AND pick up the house, it happened.

The inevitable happened.

The 'oh my word, are these children ever going to go back to school because they are driving me up the wall' happened.

I cannot be absolutely sure but I kinda think my head may have spun around a few times as I went just a teeny weeny bit ballistic.

OK, so I totally went ballistic.

The thing is, when I go ballistic my children just stare at me with bored looks on their faces which makes me go even more ballistic.

Yep. It does.

But this too shall pass and it has and all is calm with the mama once again.

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And for your viewing pleasure...my youngest while school clothes shopping:

The Weeks End

This week has been full of lots of things that make me happy.

There were the figs with goat cheese and prosciutto.

There was the very meaningful and deep book club meeting.

There were pans and pans of roasted tomatoes.

There was Tammy, fresh off a plane from Colorado sipping a margarita in my little house on my little street.

There was a rather fabulous bento box for lunch today (the sashimi was for my son because I still believe uncooked fish belongs in the water) with some of my very favorite people.

And tonight, while I don't have pictures to prove it, there was a new video of my oldest boy posted which made me smile and a lovely backyard supper (even though it was chilly) which may or may not have included a little dancing and now there's the warm winter jammies I am wearing while all cozy on my couch.

As for the tomatoes....these are my favorite way to roast them:

roma tomatoes - sliced in half, seeds removed

1 T sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

1 T dried oregano

1 cup olive oil (yep...1 cup)

Preheat oven to 250. Place tomatoes, cut side up in a single layer in a 9 X 13 inch pan. Sprinkle with sugar, salt, oregano and drizzle on all the oil. Bake for 1 1/2 hours. Turn tomatoes over and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and let cool.

Serve at room temperature with sliced french bread...the extra oil is great tossed with pasta, some of the tomatoes and parmesan cheese. Refrigerate tomatoes for up to 2 weeks.

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Passing Time

In a moment of pedicure weakness, I chose blue polish.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but every time I look down I flinch.

And excuse the blur...my camera is going, going, going but I am having a hard time deciding what to get next (seriously thinking of making the jump to a bigger one but the choices make my head hurt), so in the meantime there will be lots of blurry pictures posted.

Introducing...my toes.

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I'm actually feeling kinda anxious because the arrival of my BFF and her family (from Colorado) is imminent and I am so excited I can't sit still.

You'd think I'd mop the floor or something, but that's not happening.

I did finish the laundry though, so I am not a complete slacker...just in case you were wondering.

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Date Night

This morning we are still dealing with tar everywhere.

The smell is lovely.

Not.

The upside is the street will be pretty...not that it wasn't pretty before. Not that I looked all that closely.

Alex decided we needed a date night simply because he wanted KFC and the only way I will ever buy KFC is if I am not home to eat it.

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So he proposed that we go out and he would stay home and man the house with Brian.

OK.

(didn't take much for me to say that either.)

So M picked up the fan feast (which they devoured. ick.) and we took off for PF Changs.

I love this martini. Love, love, love.

Love.

See the shrimp dish? Left side? See it? Huh?

I am in an annoying mood today.

Sowwy.

Anyway...shrimp with walnuts and honey dew melon. Made me cry. For reals. YUM.

So good that I am seriously thinking of getting a 'to go' order of it for lunch today and not telling (or sharing with) anybody.

It was THAT good.

We then walked around the Spectrum. (an outdoor mall) Our plan was to go to a movie, but after discussing how we would have to watch 3 hours of the Bachelorette afterwards, we ditched the movie plan and went for the strolling arm in arm plan.

We ended up in Anthropologie, probably one of my favorite stores ever....and found a 1930's book on manners.

This is a very nice reminder.

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We came home and watched 3 hours (minus commercials...thank you TiVo) of that crazy Monday night show that I watched (Ali redeemed herself in my eyes) and shared a piece of cheesecake that we picked up on the way home.

I am still full and it is morning.

And seriously, I can't stop thinking about that shrimp.

Today is full of appointments...eye doctors (Brian is now in contacts!) for two kids, the orthodontist for one and physical therapy for another.

Shrimp.

Matthew performed in Tennessee last night..tomorrow is Pennsylvania. Making their way towards finals in Indy!

Shrimp. Shrimp. Shrimp.

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Monday

We awoke to our street being dug up and the smell was icky, so we decided to load up the car with every boy that answered their phone this morning.

So now I'm sitting in my car at the skatepark, hacking into the Starbucks next door free WiFi.

I'm thankful.

It's the first day of summer vacation where we have absolutely nothing planned and Brian is already bored.

Yowza.

He has had non-stop camps for the last 5 weeks and is the kind of kid that likes to be busy. All my boys are...I mean, can't they just lay around and watch TV all day like normal American kids?

Trust me I've tried.

(come now...you've thought the same thing, haven't you?)

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So we came up with a list of things we would like to accomplish before school starts on September 2nd and it includes things like Wild Rivers and Knotts and buying new shoes and painting the inside of the pantry.

Gotta use up my free child labor while I've got it.

Last night we sat in the backyard and had the most perfect Sunday evening...pasta made by that guy that I like so much (while I read People magazine...what do you think The Bachelorette is gonna do tonight, huh?) using up lots of the things that we grew ourselves, tons of candles and great music and surrounded by my very favorite people. I actually got teary during the middle of it.

Sigh.

I am in a happiness bubble.

Though I did find out that Matthew will fly in on the 15th and move into his dorm on the 19th, so I will have only a couple of days with all my chicks at home in the nest where they belong.

I will say that that puts just a teeny tiny hole in my happiness bubble, but that's OK. I'll take what I can get.

Looks like the boys are finishing up...time to pay Starbucks back for their free internet.

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Reunion

We loaded up the car with the two sons who are blessed to be home with us for the summer and drove south to San Diego....a trip that normally takes 1 1/2 hours but took us 2 1/2 hours thanks to Saturday afternoon traffic.

Traffic? On a Saturday?

I spent my time in the car doing 2 things. One was analyzing the yellow splotch on the windshield. The other was texting my sister-in-law with things like I'm bored! and Stop ignoring me!

Both were exciting and helped pass the time.

The reason for the trip was to attend the Busch Family reunion. Turns out there are like 250 of them who are all related and all live 'round these parts.

Generations and generations of them.

And they all sprouted from these two, who had 10 children of their own, plus they raised 4 of her sisters kids after the sister passed away.

Clara here was rather strong willed and decided a church needed to be built and one was. It's still there, so we all gathered there for the reunion.

There was food. Thankfully. My sons were enticed into coming along when they heard the words 'all you can eat bbq'.

It's the little things for boys.

Food is one of them.

The highlight of the afternoon was Uncle Leonard (12 times removed) asking my sister-in-law if I was her mother.

Oh yes. He did.

Yep.

He sure did.

Still processing that one.

There were games and hymns and exhibits and some fun amongst the cousins.

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All in all, a fun time...though I did go buy wrinkle cream today.

Really. I did.