July 2019

We celebrated Roger’s birthday at the movies and cheated our diet and had an ice cream sundae. I enjoyed every single spoonful.

We joined the Blooms for an evening of fireworks at the Placer County Fairgrounds. They closed off our usual parking area but we had a good view and an enjoyable evening.

Ryan and Beth hosted a BBQ for our July birthdays with some delicious burgers and Eric’s scrumptious ice cream sandwiches. The following weekend, Ryan drove us to Jake’s at Tahoe and treated us to a delicious lunch followed with a hike to work off the hula pie.

For Karissa’s date this month, we planned a tea party. Michelle has picked up a few opening shifts at Starbucks so we had Karissa spend the night before since Max was at summer camp. So we got an early start in prep work. Karissa had made name tags and Pops had made a special Mad Hatter hat. Karissa helped me pick flowers, set the table, and fold napkins. We spent the rest of the morning making lemon/chocolate chip scones and 3 different sandwiches; cucumber, egg salad, and pepperoni & cheese. Karissa invited Beth to join me and Pops...who dressed up as the Mad Hatter for a 4pm party. Good fun!!

Rog celebrated my birthday the following Sunday with a trip to Old Town Folsom. We visited the House of Jade and I actually found NOTHING that interested me. Guess the house is full:) We did a lot of people watching from a street bench and had a lazy rest of the day.

Max returned from Boy Scout Summer Camp with one less corner on his whittling chip card. He spent an afternoon in the ER after cutting into his little finger. He came home with a cast on his hand and forearm and followed up here at Kaiser with hand surgery and is looking at 3 months of immobility and therapy. Bummer.

We took a one day break and headed up to Emigrant Gap to join the Nordstroms at Snowflake Resort. It was about 20 degrees cooler and the pine smell alone was worth the drive.

For a craft, I bought the kids some plastic cross stitch backing. They picked out designs and transferred them to the plastic. They then picked out their colored threads and started the cross stitching. Now that Max is one handed, I’m not sure when we will get back to it.

The backyard project continues to move forward. The weather has been hot, but only a couple of days have actually reached 100. Even so, by 10 or 11, we retreat to the cooler inside. Rog completed the grading. We rented a skid steer at home Depot and it helped him get the major dirt moving done, then there were a few days of hand work. He laid the perimeter blocks and I was able to clean and return the stones we had removed from the old gutter to the outside of the block wall. We mapped out the footings for ½ of the posts and are ready for a pour.

I have been successful this year with the battle with the moles but I totally lost the battle with the raccoon..or possum..or whatever likes grapes.Even with the new high frequency motion detector in place, every single grape has been stolen. Hmmm At least this year they were eaten and not just dumped on the ground. We’ll try netting next year.