Glad to be home but could we get the heat turned down?

I am so glad to be home... two weeks away seems like forever...

But we left 85 degree weather in Missouri to come home to this

(that was just as we came back into Texas, I think it might have been 185degrees by the time we got home)

We left two weeks ago for a family funeral in East Tx ( that will be a separate post), then on to Kamp Kanakuk for the favorite week of summer.
This summer it was only Kellie and I on the road trip.  Katie had to stay behind for rehearsals for a musical she is going to be in.  I think the two weeks really felt like forever to Mike who was left alone with the teenager!

We stopped in Ark. to see my Aunt Effie

We headed to Branson from there and the GPS took us on the most remote route possible!  We went through Ozark National Forrest and went about an hour without even seeing another car...

We spent the next day doing the tourist type things we usually don't take the time time to do... I let Kellie pick the activities so we ended up at the wax museum

 rode the Ducks

had lunch at her favorite place, the Singing Diner

and we finally caught the "Cirque" show we have talked about seeing for the last few years... it was very fun!
Then it was on to Kamp...

Here is my clean child at one of the "wipe out" stations...

this blurry picture is her getting thrown into the mud pit

Yuck.  That's all I have to say.  Every kid who came to the nurse for the rest of the week had dried dirt in their ears! 
Kamp was great as usual.  I sure missed Katie being there with us.  I would love to have seen her reaction to wipe out!
I came home just in time... doesn't look like anyone remembered to turn the sprinklers on while I was gone and they only checked the mail twice in those two weeks... Today I got to hand them the cards I mailed them over a week ago...
I'm glad to be home!

but I don't love days I can't even account for

My few days of productivity came to halt...
I have sweet sweet family member who went to meet Jesus and I went from productive to how can I get all of this done in a day or two...
Kellie and I have to be at Kamp Kanakuk in a week and now we are throwing in an extra trip to pack for on the way....
It has been a packing frenzy, at least for me...
My poky girl has done a lot of other things in between the serious packing I was trying to lead her to do...
I have washed everything we own, ironed a lot, done the last minute shopping for kamp (because we can't seem to ever have a summer that we still have everything from last year)
and last night at midnight, Kellie came in wearing what used to be a dress but is more of shirt fit now...
she was excited she had grown, I just saw the need to go last min. dress shopping or my kid will be the one at the funeral in jeans...
good times.
So, all that to say, I'll be m.i.a for a couple of weeks...
I'm sure the family portion of the trip will be worth several stories upon my return....

I love to be productive

I forgot how much I enjoy being home for a few days with no schedule!
I get so much done...
the little dog had an 8:00 groomer appointment and as much as I was a little sad to have to be somewhere that early it made for some good early morning, beat the heat,chores I had been putting off time...
Since the 'runner' dog was getting a new hair do I decided to use that time to paint the front door...

I bought the paint about two years ago... wish I had done it sooner!
In between coats of paint I cleaned out the junk drawers...
Did a million loads of laundry
I have cleaned, and cleaned and still have so much more to do... I see cobwebs way up high I need to tackle this week!
Having spent a little time on Pintrest this week, I found several crafty things I wanted to copy...

I had seen this saying on there and it was in a craft room...I decided I needed it in my kitchen since I am always wanting to cook things no one else in the family likes and thought it looked good on one of the Italy food photos...

I copied this idea, adding some of my own words... Fun Have was the mistake I found after I was completely done!  Oh, well...
I'm working on my list of the rest of things I want to do this summer... I need some drop cloths and a sander... want to come play???

Summer is here

School got out for the kids over a week ago but I had to work a few extra days to finish up since the trip was right in the middle of school ending...
Since the kids have been out it has been the usual beginning of summer fun...
Anytime Katie is home there seems to be extra teens here... and they eat A LOT....
She did go out of town with her bestie and Kellie was thrilled to be an only child for a week... the house was much more peaceful that week I have to say...

I may have a sligth addiction to Bahama Bucks snow cones... Where can I get the ice shaver they use???

I may also be developing a little Lemoncello addiction... I brought a bottle back from Italy and have sipped it, poured it in and over things and looked up recipes with it...

I saw a cute flip flop idea on Tracy's Trinkets and Treasures  and decided we needed to make them...
We went to Hobby Lobby for the trim and then went and got the flip flops themselves...

A little E6000 and it was all done

cute, cute...
I need a new project now...
And speaking of addictions and new projects...
have you found Pintrest.com?  I did this week and love it!

Rome, the rest of the story

I was thinking I would spare you some of the Rome story... except that I have two things I want to share and then there are others along the way, so you might want to get a drink or snack for this....

Remember, I won this trip?  Well we did go and meet and the sweetest lady with Susan G. Komen Roma and she showed us all around, got us tickets to the VIP tent and then had a photographer take a picture of us with her... The problem with this is that we had been sight seeing and I don't feel we looked that part of the very grateful winners that we are.  We might have looked a little hot and sweaty instead...
She promised to share that picture when she gets it... I can hardly wait...

Speaking of that, I told Jennifer tonight that I took about a million great pictures of her but I must have been on a different trip because I don't think any of the pictures of me were good at all...
I believe that is directly related to the humid hair issues I was having...

But, back to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure...

This is crowds pouring out of the Metro stop going to the race...It was very impressive...

maybe it wasn't the hair but the cross body purse in every picture that made me look bad...

We wrote the names of our survivor friends on the wall

This is Barbara, the local Komen person...we were just hunting a bottle of water when we decided to check out the VIP tent...little did we know that there was champagne, fancy food, pastries, and even a famous Italian actress in there...
It was a huge crowd, the walk was all through downtown Rome... pretty amazing...

We then hopped on the Metro and a trip through the burbs later we arrived at the Mediterranean Sea...

Jennifer just wanted to put her feet in the water...

We took the train back, where we learned dogs can also take the train... just FYI

A tour of a church decorated with Monk's bones, getting caught in the rain, a little wine and cheese,

a great dessert

                                       and soaking my feet in a bidet brought a close to day three...

Our last day, we headed to Orvieto...

Jennifer needed something a little more than the croissant that morning and found some chicken nuggets for the ride

the view is amazing and this is the most picture perfect town I have ever seen

And the whole town revolves around the Duomo... it is said that this church is so beautiful it will be part of rapture too...

This is the best roasted pork in the world along with a wonderful wine

that we ate at this little cafe... do you see our waitress heading inside?

If I'm ever missing, try here...I've read that no outsiders move to this town other than for short stays... that it is a very closed community... but I'm pretty sure I could worm my way in...maybe I could be the town nurse or something...everyone could visit me under that umbrella...

We grabbed a couple of pastries and left my new favorite town where I want to move and headed back...

I was very sad but we had to do it...

We went to St Peter's Basilica in the late afternoon...

there was a Mass going on back there

We stopped for dinner where I'm pretty sure Franck from 'Father of the Bride' was our waiter...it was the most fun meal we had on the trip!

He offered to take our picture but didn't give me time to change the setting for him so we're a little out of focus...

It was the perfect final meal in Rome...

The whole trip just flew by...

I'm ready to go back...

Come see me in Orvieto when I move...

P.S.

I found out today that Ask.com was the sponser who made our trip possible...

I am very very grateful to them!