being useful

I won't pretend I'm not loving this life of leisure and zero responsibility this summer, but it is also nice to be useful when I can.

Unfortunately, one opportunity I had to be useful recently was due to others' loss. So while I wish this event had not taken place, I was glad I could help out. Last weekend, some relatives' barn burned down, and Wednesday morning, Brian and I (along with his parents and some other relatives) were able to help with clean-up. We filled one of those huge, long and deep dumpsters with metal and picked up glass. Some worked on dismantling part of a chicken house that had burned and taking down trees.

I've also been working more on sorting things at my mom & dad's. Here are a few gems I've found so far.

Aw, our holiday celebration group! I also found our Hanukkah candles (they went into the Et Cetera box).

A cutie picture from our freshman year. Em sent this to me as a postcard the summer after and concluded her message with "Are they models?" I feel like this is a line I should have a memory about but don't. Can anyone fill me in?

Stay tuned for more special finds I may come across!

father's day festivities

Ok, this will fulfill the "day-to-day," "exciting haps" (for me, this means anything out of the ordinary, ha), and "pictures." :)

Brian and I hosted a meal for Father's Day for our dads (and moms, of course) and Dave & Shelley's family too. Can you really say you hosted a meal when you don't live in the location it is taking place? This means my parents had a pretty big hand in hosting it. Saturday morning, we worked on getting their place ready. What you see above are the results of my and mom's labor in the flower bed. We did lots of weeding together, which was actually pretty fun.

Our menu was BBQ pork sandwiches (this is the best crockpot BBQ pork recipe I have ever used), potato salad, baked beans, chips, and no-bake cheesecake. Mmm, mmm. The only element that wasn't successful was the cheesecake because we used Neufchatel instead of regular cream cheese, which means it did not set up. Lesson learned: do not try to be healthy.

This was my first time making potato salad. I think my mom makes the best potato salad!!, so it was fun for me to get the chance to make it with her. Here it is (after it's been reduced in quantity by being served at two meals).

It was a lot of fun to have everyone together. Our nephew and niece are pretty much the most adorable kids ever, and we LOVE spending time with them. Our nephew says the most hilarious and also sweet things, aw.

requests?

After a long hiatus, I am wanting to get back into blogging. Of course, there is the age-old problem of what, exactly, to blog about. So I'm copping out and asking if anyone has any requests. Sorry, this is not one of those blog offers of "I will answer anything you ask me." :)