Simple Pleasures: Air Conditioning and fans...

We live in North Carolina. It is hot here. It has been in the mid to high 90's all week...It's only June 2nd. I ask this every year: If it is this hot now, how hot is it going to be in July and August, our 2 hottest months? We are already in the "it is too hot to go outside for any length of time" phase. It is stinkin' hot...My simple pleasure today is air conditioning and fans that help the cool get pushed around the room. Enough said.

What is your simple pleasure today? Check out Cocoa's and you can get some cool free printables she found. :)

Read " Anne's House of Dreams"-you will love it!

I finished Anne's House of Dreams last night and I loved it!  If you haven't read the Anne of Green Gables books you have to.  They are so amazing!   When you read it, you feel like, if you looked up you would be sitting in the garden or the sweet little home by the sea that is being described.  You will fall in love with the characters and wait with anticipation to see if their dreams are fulfilled or if tragedy will strike.  Both happen in Anne's House of Dreams, but as they all do, this book ended on a high note as Anne gets ready to enter a new chapter of her life.  In this book she and Gilbert are married and starting their family in a little town by the sea where Gilbert is taking over his uncle's medical practice.  In their "home of dreams" they make many memories and wonderful friends that will last a life time.  Read these books.  You will LOVE them! 

Picture a day in May, Day 29: 74 books...

Nana Harmon works as a substitute in the offices at elementary schools in Spartanburg, SC (Aaron's home town) and she has been getting all sorts of books for us to use for homeschooling.  There is an elementary school that is closing down and they are converting it into Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4.  Otherwise known as "get the children out of the homes of their parents as soon as possible because we can do a better job raising them.".  Just kidding...kind of.  You may have heard of Pre-K 4-it is like head start for children at risk and those that they feel can help the children catch up to where they ought to be.  Pre-K 3...free day care.  Any way lucky for us they are doing it because Nana brought us the lasted batch of books-74 to be exact (she has already brought us several others, I posted about a while ago)!!!  I am so excited!  There are books ranging from electricity and magnetism to the Supreme Court.  There are 3 books that will be PERFECT to study during next years election that we will definitely learn about with hands on experience.There are work books and the teacher books that go along with them.  Some are for 5 grade and some are for 6th grade-AWESOME!!!  There are tons of books about US history and birds and animals...I could go on and on!  Jake didn't see them we slipped them in the trunk while he was inside.  They are packed a way in my closet with other things that I have been assembling for home schooling.  I think we are going to use it all to reveal to Jake he is being home schooled...I am thinking of wrapping it all up and maybe a scavenger hunt...I can't wait!  Thank you Nana!

Picture a day in May, Day 28: The Graduate

Congratulations Kayla!!!!  We are so proud of you and love you to pieces!!!  (How beautiful is she!?!)

Papa did what we all felt like doing during a VERY long song by the band. :)

Kayla and Jake.

Nana with the grandchildren (minus Addie Kate and Della)

Nana and Papa with the graduate.

Kayla looked adorable in her rain boots.  Everybody said it was so Kayla. :)

The Mike (Aaron's oldest brother) Harmon Family: Mike, Sara, Megan, Kayla, and Teri

The graduation was a VMI-it is a beautiful campus!

I don't really know why this picture is to the side...But we all devoured the yummy "Frog More Stew" (it is a southern thing and it is so yummy.)  Some people call it a shrimp boil.

Later on we went to the river and the "little ones", as Kayla calls them, has fun swimming and trying to catch craw fish.

Jake had fun hitting whiffle balls in the front yard and shooting air guns.

And we of course celebrated with cake.

Buena Vista is up on the top of the list of places I would LOVE to live...It made me miss the mountains and not want to leave!  It was great to be together and watch Kayla move on to the next phase in life.  Mike and Teri shook hands at the graduation and said "Two down, one to go!"  But don't let them fool ya there were some tears shed. :) 

Picture a day in May, Day 27: Sadie waiting for Jake...

On Friday afternoon we were going to head up to Virginia for our niece, Kayla's, high school graduation. For some reason I didn't feel good about leaving then, so we changed our plan and decided to head out first thing Saturday morning. Which worked out great-we got to see Aaron again before leaving (he had to work Friday night and 2nd shift on Sat. so he couldn't go), we cleaned the house so it is all ready for us all to have tomorrow off (YIPPEEE!), and got to bed early. In between thunderstorms we played in the back yard for a little while too. My favorite picture we took was of Sadie:

If you look closely you can see Jake outside the fence-that is why Sadie was waiting so patiently at the gate. The pot is there to hold up the plywood-she can still stick her head through it.  At one point I accidentally kicked the ball over the fence and when Jake went out to get it Sadie slipped out too...Long story short at one point she was running straight for the busy main road to blocks a way and I thought my child was going to be scarred for life watching his dog get hit by a car.  We were both screaming at her at the top of our lungs...She is definitely a leash dog so far.  When we finally got her back to the gate I opened it and let go of her collar for her to go in and she started to dart off again.  I was very proud of myself because I said her name in a way that she KNEW she better not even think about it and she went quickly into the yard.  I had a Cesar Milan  (The Dog Whisperer) moment.  I thought I was a dog whisperer...I think Emily was just so good that she would have made anyone feel like a dog whisperer.  Sadie-not so much. :)  When school gets out there will be some serious training going on.

This is just a picture of  the view looking up through the...what is it called-it is where the "porch" swing is hanging.  The sun through the leaves was so lovely! 

I was sitting on the swing trying to get a picture of Jake kicking the soccer ball, but we never got the ball in the picture...


We played a little Ben 10...

Took a couple of pictures of us...

Sadie had to get in on the action too, much to Jake's surprise.

I am glad we waited and headed out Saturday morning...even if it did mean getting up at 4:30 am.  I thought Jake was going to be bummed when I picked him up from school and told him.  He was for a second and then he said: "It is probably the Spirit telling you we shouldn't go today so we better listen."  It is moments like those that make my heart happy.  It balances out the other moments I want to ring his neck. :)  (you know I am kidding right?...)

Picture a day in May, Day 26: The Summer Do

Neither of these are going to win any photography awards (eye partially closed, glasses lopsided), but they are Jake and he is adorable.  The Before and After of the Summer Do.

Before:

After:

You can take a walk down my Memory Lane if you want with these links (I figured Nana and Nee would like to look back.  I know I did.):

Summer Do 2010

Summer Do 2009

Simple Pleasures: Confederate Jasmine...3 Weeks Ago

This funny little flower is called a Confederate Jasmine.  Isn't it adorable?  (It grows up things like: my neighbors porch, or another neighbors fence gate...etc.)  About 3 weeks ago I was going to run across the street and take a picture of my neighbors blooming Confederate Jasmine (I even asked her so she wouldn't think I was crazy taking pictures on her porch...), but it just never happened.  So, needless to say I got this image off the world wide web-thank you whoever took it! :)  I talked so much about these little beauties, that when Aaron and Jake made a Lowe's run one day, they checked to see if they had any, but they didn't. :(  The reason these little flowers are my simple pleasure is because they smell A-MAZ-ING!!!!  Every walk we took was heavenly because several houses in our neighborhood have it and you can just about smell it before you can see it.  It isn't an overpowering smell, it is just...perfect.  This is my Simple Pleasure, 3 weeks over due.

What is your Simple Pleasure?  Check out Chocolate on my Cranium to learn about other peoples Simple Pleasures.