Birthday (and beyond)

Confession: +30 is too hot

I meant to have this up last Friday and here we are an entire week later.

So, what have I been up to?

June 30th was my last day of work.  I'm still not sure where I'll be working next year (or if I'll be substitute teaching) so for now, I'm just enjoying my summer.

July 1st was Canada Day.  Since the Penner's didn't get together for Easter we got together for a BBQ on the 1st instead.  It was the perfect day outside (maybe a little on the hot side but at least it wasn't +30 outside!  After that John and I went to see the fireworks.  We had a great view of them (and before the ones started that we actually went to see we watched the ones from the 2nd location that does fireworks in our city... 2 shows for the price of 0 because walking there didn't cost us a thing).

July 2nd I had a baby shower for my cousin and her new baby. All those years of playing Mixed Up Mother Goose finally paid off when my table cleaned up during nursery rhyme jeopardy.

Fun fact: We also had mixed up fairy tales

July 3rd was my 30th birthday!

I'm sure I slept in a little and made myself a smoothie in the morning.  I was tidying things up before my friend Samantha came over so that we could go get our nails done when I happened to glance out the window and see a giant vase with a bunch of flowers in it along with a card sitting on my balcony.

there are 30 roses.. one for every year I've been around.

I have a pretty fantastic boyfriend.

Later that evening that pretty fantastic boyfriend of mine took me out for dinner

When I turned 28 I made a decision to read a bit of my Bible every day and to have it completely read by my 30th birthday.  I was following a 2 year plan that I found here and I managed to follow through with it!

Now that I'm 30 my plan is done so I'm just reading a few chapters every day.

But apparently I like to start things on my birthday and not January 1st like the rest of your commoners and so if you look back one post you'll see that I wrote about some cookies and titled it Week 1.  If you know me you know I LOVE cookies and so every week for the next year (or until I turn 31) I'm going to try to bake a different kind of cookie.  That's 52 weeks of cookies folks!  By the end of the year I should have a great stack of wonderful cookies to bake!

I'm rating each cookie so that I won't forget how wonderful (or awful) they are!

July 4th was a day to head out to a friends and spend time with a bunch of friends to celebrate a few of our birthdays.

Before we left the city John and I stopped for some brunch and to get some chips for the group (and a swimsuit for John).

Sadly, no one got our messages about when we were leaving the city, or that we were 10 minutes away when they decided to stop waiting for us and go to float down the river for 4 hours.

Luckily, I wasn't on my own so John and I made our way to the river for a little swim on our own, played some Rummicube, tossed a football around, practiced some water balloon games that we thought we might be playing and went for a walk.

We drove part of the way home in a downpour and most of the way home with lightening lighting the way.

(our friends did eventually come back and we had dinner with them and played pictionary)

July 5th I didn't do too much.  John and I went to a book store and bought some coffee.  Then we drove around looking at open houses and ended up watching Oceans 13 at his place (and reading the first few chapters of the book we bought together).

July 6th I got together with some friends (one that I only see about once a year) for dinner and some mini golf.

After I got back I had to make some muffins for the next couple of days and John came over to supervise and hang out because we weren't sure if we would end up seeing each other again in the next 2 weeks.

Why would we not see each other?

Well, on July 7th I went to my relatives cabin.

The 7th and 9th were wonderful days to spend outside in the sun

July 8th was a rainy day so my cousin and I went to the farmers market, read a lot, and put together a puzzle.

For the record, we put this beauty together without a picture to look off of.  I would say the last 50 or so pieces took the majority of the time.

I came back home on the evening of July 9th

Which brings us to today, July 10th

It is HOT outside.  

This morning I went outside to lay in the sun and read and drink my smoothie but I barely lasted out there before I was completely drenched in sweat

I also planted my lemongrass (despite it not having grown roots... I'm just going to hope they grow now that it is planted)

and I checked on my other plants.  

I'm skeptical about how well my tomato plant will do.  Last year I only got 1 tomato on it.  So this year I planted it in a larger pot and there are currently lots of flowers on it.... I'm just unsure of how well it will do.

But look!

I came home to my pepper plant having some flowers on it!

John leaves this evening until the 19th for the lake.  

Right now the plan is for me to join him out there the 12th-15th