Summer Favorites

Sweet lady Lin and a couple other gals are hosting Random Thursday, and this weeks topic is favorite things about summer! 

I do not like summer, because summer is hot hot hot, especially now spending my first (10-month long) summer in Texas. But aside from the heat and AC bills, between the bug bites and frizzy hair, even I can find some good things about my least favorite season. 

 Cold Treats. A particular abundance of them. 

Hanging out in the backyard, reading, tanning, longing for the air conditioned indoors, whathaveyou. 

 Flip flops and sandals all the time! Though in Texas this is a year round luxury. 

 Outdoor adventures.

BBQ

via

Summer movies. 

via

Birthday times, both for Kyle and I, and a lot of friends too. 

Though my favorite summertime of all is summertime in Finland.

And, funny enough, almost exactly a year ago I wrote a post about my summer favorites, you can see here. 

-Mrs. M

Guest Pictures

I thought I'd share with you some pictures of the day that some of our lovely friends took and put up on facebook! :) It really was an incredibly fun party with so many friends and family (about 80). I will post again about our awesome guests and how much it meant to me that they were all there to celebrate with us. If I can even come up with the words to express it properly. They made my heart so full and happy.

 by Jennifer (Aunt AJ!)

 by Jillian

beer photos by Kendall :)

 by Tracy

by Alyssa

and lastly, a photo of the three McPherson brothers dancing to Moves Like Jagger, taken by Anne 

Aren't our friends pretty?

There is still much much more wedding to come, I'm just waiting until the professional photographs are in to blog about it in detail! :) 

S.

Lime Citrus Bars

The other day I made these lime bars which I found a while back from A Beautiful Mess. We had a bunch of lime juice left over from the wedding bar, and I guess I feel citrus baked goods are fitting for the summer heat. They turned out well, though I didn't build the crust up around the sides of the pan so that's why the edges are a bit dark. I meant to make these while my friends were visiting, as baking usually ends up going to waste as the two of us can't make it too far through a batch of cookies or whathaveyou, but oh well! They are quick and easy and tasty, but a little sweeter than I prefer.

- Mrs. M

Lately and Day 9

There was a marathon of seasons 1 and 2 of The Walking Dead this weekend. Kyle and I hadn't seen the second season, so we were looking forward to it, even though I totally forgot until around noon on Saturday when someone reminded me it was going on. Anyway, it was awesome. I guess this is a world where nobody had heard of zombies? Or else you'd think they'd just call them zombies. Also, a lot of people get hurt from non-zombie related incidents, and that is frustrating, but oh well.

Kyle has been on a weird Army schedule with night guard shifts, and so the days/nights kind of blurr and sleep is more sporadic, meals together less frequent. I am not a fan but I'll take this over Afghanistan any blurry day/night!

Also, the city of Temple (where we live) was declared to be in a state of disaster early yesterday, as power was lost at the water treatment plant and they could not make our water safe. I learned this the hard way, as I went out to do some errands and bring back Subway for us before Kyle went to work, only to discover everything (though Target was open, so yes I went there) was closed until further notice due to there not being any water. At this point power has resumed I guess but they are not yet fully functioning, so we are still on a level 3 water restriction (basically don't water your lawns, people) and are told to boil our water before consuming it. Thankfully I have one of those extra large brita filters in the fridge so I haven't had to do that yet. Weird stuff.

On to the 15 Day Challenge! Thank you to Sar for hosting this; it has been a lot of fun so far! :)


Describe the best day of your life to date.

I hope I'm not the only one who can't/isn't picking one day, but I think picking one whole 24 hour day out of all the days of my life is a difficult task! I think it is easier to think of life in terms of events and happenings, a series of ups and downs, regardless of whether it lasted a day or a few hours or a month. Some great times lately have been: getting into grad school, our first Christmas together in our first house together right after Kyle got back from Iraq, getting married, the kittens joining our family as little 7-week olds, and our wedding celebration a few weeks ago!

-Mrs. M

Day 8

Describe "the good, the bad and the ugly" of yourself.

The Good:
- I am very self-motivated. I don't need anyone motivating me to succeed or work hard and I imagine that is a good thing.
- I really like school and the work.
- I have strength, creativity, and a nurturing instinct.

The Bad:
- Misophonia
- I feel pain often.

The Ugly:
- I can be quite anxious and hide behind things.
- I don't think I am usually unhappy, but it is a challenge for me to be genuinely happy.
- Both of these lead me to not live life to the fullest.

-Mrs. M

About a Book

Day 7: Recommend a book for us to read. Why do you think it's important?

My pick: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. 

I read this book in September 2008, and it changed my life. Well, it contributed to changing it, at least. Kyle had previously read and highly recommended this book (and I'm sure it contributed to him being a history and philosophy of science major), and I was finally reading it during my first semester of sophomore year at American University. It is the kind of book that makes you think, makes you want to think. I couldn't help but fill it with sticky notes and tabs (pictured, haha), fill pages in a notebook with my rambling thoughts and questions. One Saturday in particular, I had the closest to what I imagine an epiphany would feel like. I was going between reading this book, and working on things for my cross cultural communications and psychology courses. They were courses to satisfy general education requirements, as I was at the time majoring in Business.  I'm not sure how or what happened, but the combination of the philosophy, anthropology and psychology all floating around in my head just hit me all at once. It was all connected, and it was all more important than anything else I could think of. Business isn't what I wanted and needed to be learning, it was people. I think I knew that all along, but I hadn't really known about or explored all these majors I didn't know existed. I just wanted to think about and learn about people; what could be more important? I ended up switching majors and switching schools. It is certainly one of the, if the the most memorable, books I have read. Even if I forget a lot about it (I have a terrible long-term memory for things I've read), I always remember the weight of it and how it made me think. 

I didn't want to spend too much time telling you actually what the book is about; it is a philosophical adventure, it is haunting and unforgettable.  It can get heavy at times, but it forces you to take it slowly, stop and think about your own life and humanity. I'm really getting an urge to read it again, actually! Here is some info courtesy of Wikipedia (but it is best to just read it):

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (ZAMM) is a 1974 philosophical novel, the first of Robert M. Pirsig's texts in which he explores his Metaphysics of Quality.

The book describes, in first person, a 17-day journey on his motorcycle from Minnesota to California by the author (though he is not identified in the book) and his son Chris, joined for the first nine days by close friends John and Sylvia Sutherland. The trip is punctuated by numerous philosophical discussions, referred to as Chautauquas by the author, on topics including epistemology, ethical emotivism and the philosophy of science.

In ZAMM, Pirsig explores the meaning and concept of quality, a term he deems to be undefinable. Pirsig's thesis is that to truly experience quality one must both embrace and apply it as best fits the requirements of the situation. According to Pirsig, such an approach would avoid a great deal of frustration and dissatisfaction common to modern life."

Other honorable mentions:

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

anything by Bill Bryson

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Theogony by Hesiod

-Mrs. M

The Last Couple Weeks

Kyle sporting a shirt from Doha, Darwin, hot hot hot, neutral color (sugar daddy?)

chai! tasty honey sesame chicken, washer/dryer shopping, he wants to build things

lunch, Darwin napping, tasty summer pasta

change in Army schedule- making lunch/dinner for Kyle in the morning, baking cookies and gifted awesome stackable baking rack! new phone case, it actually fits, taco dinner

D in the sink, breakfast, leftover wedding straws are the best, limeade

wedding thank-yous arrived, washer/dryer shopping- we decided on this set. there are so many buttons!

 Claire bought some bacon soda to bring back to Australia...

our machines arrived yesterday! Kyle put this picture of a puppy he won't let me get on my desktop. How mean :) 


What is something you've always wanted to do but haven't? Why not? 

I think it is easier to think of things I have done that I would like to do again, this time with Kyle, such as going up in a hot air balloon, whale watching, and a trip to Finland. As for something more long term, always is a big, long word. The only thing I can think of always wanting to do is to be a mother. We are planning on waiting until I finish grad school, so two years from now we could be prepping for or close to welcoming a little one!





- Mrs. M