Back to School

My beautiful, magical summer is coming to an end. Tomorrow brings the best and worst of summer: going back to school. It's the worst because my leisurely days are over, I have to start setting an alarm and exercising after work, but worst of all, it means winter is on its way. *shudder* Fall is fine by me, but take note: It has an unhappy ending. This downgrades its beauty (and deliciousness) substantially, in my opinion.

But here's the best part: There is always a beautiful moment at this time of year when I suddenly comprehend that I'm going to see my kids again, and I. Can't. Wait. I have a desperate desire to walk down the hall and see their faces smiling at me, to watch the room fill up with kids I've known for six years and kids I'm meeting for the first time, to laugh with them, and best of all, hear them sing.

So I'm trading in my sundresses and sandals for pencil skirts and heels, early mornings of running for early mornings of show choir, the quiet warmth of my back yard for a classroom filled with laughter and music. And, as you all know by now how much I adore summer, you'll understand how much I love my kids and what I do when I say this: It is an extremely fair trade.

Best kids ever.

Final Salvo Wednesday

Well, this is it, folks. My last Wednesday of the summer was spent in Dansville (my hometown). I always do well there, and I am surprised by it every time (I mean, after all, it's Dansville!) But, be that as it may, the Salvation Army in Dansville always does right by me. (Of course, now that I've said that, it won't next time. Jinxed myself!!)

Top, Old Navy, $1.50
Skirt, Old Navy, $2.50

The skirt still had the tags - you can tell because I'm pointing at it. 

Before I move on to the next item, I'd like to take a moment to discuss price tag placement. If any Salvation Army employee ever reads this, please, please, PLEASE, will you do us all a favor here? If you MUST staple the things on, could you please staple them to the tag instead of to the delicate fabric? I mean... it's right there. Wouldn't have taken you two seconds longer. Advice to all my fellow thrift-store friends... if your local store does this too (Salvation Army stores staple, but to my knowledge everything else in Rochester uses the plastic tags), take great care removing the price tags. Don't just yank. You will regret it. I use an old pair of tweezers and pull the ends up on the staple and then gently remove the staple. Trust me on this... you do not want a big hole in a Banana Republic shirt! Even if you did only pay $1.50 for it (half off day, remember) - to me, this makes it all the more precious.

Banana Republic, $1.50

Express top, $1.50
Old Navy jeans, $2.50

Ann Taylor skirt, $2

White House Black Market skirt, $2.50

Limited skirt, $2

Vitta Luna dress, $3

The dress was the first thing I found on entering the store - it was on the reshop rack, so thank you to whomever tried it on but didn't buy it. I'm pretty sure this is what I'm wearing to my cuzbud's wedding in a week! 

My mom joined me for this trip, and she got some stuff too (mostly clothes for my dad, I think) and she gave me a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase. So my already-half-off purchases had another $5 knocked off! Thank you Mom!

I moved on to a very brief trip to the Henrietta Salvo just because I need new work pants and hadn't found any at the Dansville store. I found two pairs of black pants. I'm only posting a picture of one, because really you can't tell the difference in the pictures (one is for heels and one is for flats, obviously). The unpictured pair were from Old Navy and were $2.

Express, $7.50

I really broke the bank on these (SEVEN FIFTY?!?!?), but as you can see, I am helpfully pointing out the tag again. Still has all the original tags! Since the tag tells me they're originally $69, probably it wasn't so bad to pay $7.50.

Forever 21, $2.50

I'm sad to say that my beautiful summer is coming to a close, so I bought a sweater. I. Bought. A. Sweater. It had to happen. At least it's cute and not bulky. *sigh*  Dear Salvation Armies, you and I have had a beautiful summer together. I'll see you over Thanksgiving break.

Grilling

I'm rather fond of my husband. He's funny, smart, athletic, takes care of the dogs and the house and me (in that order), managed to kick cancer in its backside last year, and is just basically my favorite person to hang out with. (Of course, he has an evil sense of humor, so I should probably not say such nice things about him or it will go to his head and he'll find some way to torture me with it later.) Even if none of these things were true, if he was stupid, lazy, and boring, I might still have considered marrying him for his grilling abilities.

Grilling - or rather, sitting around while Greg grills and then eating what he produces - is my very favorite summer activity. Above and beyond every single other activity I have listed thus far and could even invent later on, this would be #1. There is no way to beat the healthy deliciousness he makes, and to top it off, I get to hang out with him and the dogs, read my Kindle, drink some summer-in-a-bottle, and just generally enjoy the warmth in a very laid-back way.

In no particular order, allow me to share some of this summer's highlights.

Catfish tacos. The catfish has been seasoned with a blend of a Wegmans marinade, some of his homegrown Kung Pao peppers, and magic. It is topped with a tomato/avacado/lettuce/lime/heaven blend. On the side we have white zucchini and homegrown green beans that he grilled in Adobo seasoning and some red spicy stuff.

 Grilled summer squash, grilled corn (he does it in the husk on the charcoal grill and I can't believe I ever thought that boiled corn was the best thing on earth after tasting this!!!), catfish (done cajun this time). Just so you can see it before it reaches the plate. :)

As usual, our summer squash blend and corn (grilled in the proper way), and that lovely tortilla contains buffalo chicken, tomatoes and lettuce from our garden, and light bleu cheese. Let me tell you about the sauce. That sauce is the product of about two years of Greg growing hot peppers obsessively. I don't know which ones are in there, but I know it contains some of the ones he dried and ground up last year and some of the ones he picked this year. Yum.

Another one of my favorites - this time the corn is accompanied by a quinoa/orzo/garbanzo bean/something else delicious blend made by Wegmans called Golden Jewel. It's amazing. There are so many different textures and I LOVE it. I had it first at my coworker's, when she and I ran together between school and dress rehearsal for The Music Man (which I vocal directed and her kids were in). YUM. The split chicken breast is marinated in Chiavetta's. If you haven't had this... I pity you.

 OK, so we're on a BIT of a catfish kick this summer. This time he did it in Wegmans Mojo sauce (he keeps correcting me when I pronounce it "moho" but it seems more fun that way!). The sauce is light and has some nice spices which I can't identify. If I could, I would be doing some of the grilling instead of Greg (in truth, he really doesn't even trust me with the vegetables. Rightly so. I forget about them). Obviously, we have my delicious Golden Jewel blend there again, some mixed vegetables, and the best part of this plate is the corn - we grew it in our back yard!

This is obviously just a FEW of the wonderful things we've eaten this summer... but you can see why I love it so. If I'm lucky, all the stars and planets line up correctly, and I keep my fingers and toes crossed properly, maybe winter will hold off long enough for us to grill for another couple of months. *fingers crossed*

Salvo Wednesday #5 - Atlantic City!!

When we visited Atlantic City last week, I made a point to visit their Salvo on Wednesday. I wasn't sure what to expect - amazing stuff? Hilarious items from casino performers? Terrifying items from the many, many girly bars? What I found was a small but jam-packed store with an entire wall of dresses. A WALL of dresses. The aisles were so narrow that everybody was leaving their carts at the end. Very few people were speaking English - mostly Spanish and Russian, from what I could tell - and I was pretty confident that no one would be competing with me for the clothes I wanted, since I was the youngest person in there by a couple of decades, easy.

I made out like a bandit, though. I didn't take pictures of a couple of layering tank tops, some yoga pants (and a running skirt - $2 for a running skirt is very exciting!), and a skirt that I didn't try on because it was my size and Kenneth Cole, but turned out to look like the skirt version of Hammer pants. Very weird. Anyway, the dresses and skirts were pretty great...so here they are!

J Crew, $5

What you can't really see here is the white embroidery. Pretty pretty pretty! And since I'm tanned for about the only time in my life, I wore this one right away. This will NOT be good on me when I'm back to being pasty white.

Bitten, $2.50

Continuing my mission to rescue the entire SJP Bitten line from extinction, at least in my closet. It's a nice stretchy knit and is SO comfortable and breathable!

Old Navy, $3.50

I wore this right away in Atlantic City. Love the off the shoulder, love the flowiness and stretchiness. The green wall makes it hard to tell, but this is a true blue color.

$3.50, Forever 21

Just can't get enough of that stretchy knit material. It's my favorite material for a summer dress, since it's so comfortable and cool on a hot day. Which, incidentally, I could use a few more of.

$3.50, Banana Republic

OK, did NOT realize how much this needed to be ironed until I took the picture. Anyway, I love the top and it is a really soft, shiny metallic skirt. 

Banana Republic, $3.00

It's hard to see the print but it's little shades of gray and purple boxes. Nothing makes my day more than finding Banana Republic at the Salvo!

Express, $3.00

It's scratchy wool, so this one will definitely be for winter, paired with tights.

Atlantic City's Salvo gets two thumbs up from me!

Anniversary

Six years ago today, I put on a pretty white dress and promised, in front of my friends and family, to not talk during soccer games. In return, Greg promised to always hold my hand.

August 14, 2005

He's kept his promise better than I've kept mine. Fortunately, I have lots of time to keep trying. I'm anticipating many, many more happy anniversaries with this crazy, wonderful man.

The Beach!

Dear friends, let me point out the ways in which beaches are awesome.

Water

Sand

Pretty beach umbrellas

Ice Cream

Boogey

Boarding

Getting a tan

Relaxing in the sun

So...pretty much everything. Every. Thing.

Professional Vacationers

Last summer, we took advantage of a deal offered at Bass Pro Shops - for $100, we got two nights at a Bluegreen vacation club in Williamsburg, VA and a $100 Bass Pro Shop gift card. So, free vacation, right? We had a wonderful time - and then had to sit through the vacation club spiel. We caved. We bought in at a VERY entry level - enough for a short vacation every two years, probably - but Greg kept saying repeatedly "We're professional vacationers now, baby!"

So, we're taking our first "professional vacation" at the Bluegreen resort in Atlantic City (there are about 50 resorts nationwide) for our 6th anniversary. We're right smack dab on the beach...

View from the pool deck

And there's a pool and a hot tub... (and a sauna, steam room, and a weight room, but I didn't take pictures of those.)

The hotel has a game room, which we didn't expect but is pretty cool.

But the best part about being professional vacationers instead of just booking a hotel room is the room. We got a studio - the resort offers one and two bedrooms as well - but even the studio offers a full kitchen, a large bathroom (with a whirlpool tub!) and comes stocked with plates, pots and pans, and glasses, including wine glasses. Which made me very happy.

So these professional vacationers fully intend to spend most of the day on the beach. After I go to the Salvation Army, because after all, it IS Wednesday. And it should be a better day today for the beach than yesterday... we arrived to a thunderstorm and TORRENTIAL downpour. The road outside our resort turned to a river. A couple of trash cans even floated away.

Vacation time!