The One That I Should Have Written 3 Weeks Ago...

I know...I know...I know. Swear it.

In fact...just last week I finished writing a whole briefing doc for a client on best practices for blogging...and I broke the golden rule. Don't disappear or you will lose your readers. Lucky for me...I have about 3...and 1 of them I know still checks this thing because she asked me to write!! So shout out to her (you know who you are...) because I suppose that officially means I still have at least 33% of my readership still intact!!

But to be fair - I did warn you all...that summer time means slacker time (for me anyway)...and I'm on a teacher's watch - which truly means VA-CA-TION!!! and let's be honest, this weather...it's been all her fault.  We've been BFFs lately...boating, pooling, swimming, beaching, tanning, playing, walking, all while outsiding!!

Plus, she has been helping me grow a kick ass garden...(wait...can I say ass on here?) ...we have TONS of amazing things!! I'm really into it....in fact, I had this crazy idea the other day when I was driving (and for those of you who know me...well that is...know that when I get an idea...it's not unheard of that I might take it one step further than the average normal person...) so the idea was...what if a school planted a garden, and they had a class that was like called horticulture class or something...and they learned all about growing stuff, and cooking with fresh "things" and during class the kids had to tend to the garden, and they would have to water it, take care of it, weed it, harvest it...and then all the harvested goods would be used in the cafeteria for lunch - would it be possible to feed a whole school everyday from a garden? how big would that garden have to be?? Maybe it's the teacher in me...and the healthy food junkie...but I think that would be really kick ass....(yeah...I think I can say ass on here...I heard Nigel say it on SYTYCD tonight... if he can say it on prime time I'm ok with it here)...plus, unfortunately, my language isn't my most proudest of proud skills - so it is what it is.

Anyway, I've been trying my very hardest to cook from the garden, and well even bake from the garden! We have string beans, peas, tomatoes, beets, swiss chard, mint, peppers, zucchini, lettuce, squash, brussels sprouts, and my very most favorite...the carrots!! orange kind AND purple.
Here are some pictures...

Here are two loaves of zucchini bread that I made...thanks to Paula Deen's recipe...which is really great btw...I definitely recommend.  I made chocolate chip kind and regular.  The chocolate chip was of course my favorite.  (I'm not really even a huge chocolate fan...so I'm not sure why I said of course...but really, it was pretty outstanding.)

oh yeah!!! and the Pies!! I forgot...we also have a TON of fruit on this property!! If you've been to my house you know the whole lower acre is full of kiwi trees - it looks pretty much like a vineyard (that's what everyone thinks it is...) but really they are kiwis down there!  Aside from that we have several blueberry bushes (which made this homemade yummy, fresh-from-the-garden, pie!), apples, plums, and a pear tree!!!  The berries are the only thing ready right now...but I can't WAIT for fruit harvesting...wahoo!

Hmm...what else...I feel like there is so much to write about - because, well...it has been an entire month practically and every single day I have been doing stuff...like making yummy dinners and fun snacks for friends...Thank you pinterest for all of your fun ideas!! Like my watermelon lemonade (which was AMAZING...best thing ever.) I pretty much followed exactly the recipe, only I added 2 1/2 cups or so of fresh pureed watermelon.  Now I think if I were to do it again I might cheat and buy the lemonade already made...hand squeezing 2 cups of lemon juice and 1 cup of lime juice is a lot of freakin work!  Especially when it is 97 degrees (and probably more like 107 in my kitchen.)  But it was pretty worth it. So good!  We also had brushetta, tortellini skewers with pesto dip and chocolate dipped bananas! YUM.

There is so much more...and maybe someday here I will catch up...and do some posts on some things like my week at the beach or the day I went clothes shopping for my cousin's new baby girl (1 month till she gets born - I AM PUMPED!!) wait...actually you just have to see my favorite thing I got her...unreal.

baby swim suit...and those ruffles on the legs...please. TOO much. should the day ever come that I have a little girl...uh oh...bye bye money.

anyway...hopefully some day, some time I can play catch up. But until then I'll try to be better, or, at least stay current...get back on the train...afterall, what do they call these days? the dog ones? when summer starts to come to an end...I already see it...Daily Doubles starts on Monday...that means school is getting ready to kick back into gear -- wha???? does time just turn to warp speed once you cross the line of 25?  holy smokes I swear yesterday was May 1st...but apparently that was 3 1/2 months ago. whoa. well anyway, daily doubles means school...and school means schedules and routines and back to the grind. So usually when I am in my routine I am much better about staying on top of things like blogs.

I'll leave you on one last parting note...to round off this blog of a dozen things about nothing but random stuff...anyone need one last good book to end the summer with?? Cause I found one!!! If you're a fan of Hunger Games...that kind of addicting sci fi stuff that you can't put down and finish 500 pages in about 2 days...go buy Divergent, by Veronica Roth.

I read it in less than a week...and two nights ago bought the second one (it's a trilogy) called Insurgent.  I'm only about 70 pages in...but it's just as great so far. The only thing is...the third one isn't released. And normally I get lucky and don't find these types of books until half the world has read them and all of them have been released...so I can read the whole group just bam...bam...bam...like Hunger Games, Twilight, Harry Potter - I didn't read any of them till they were all out...so now, I'm about to learn what it's like to have to WAIT for a book to be released. I'll let you know how that goes. I'm pretty sure it's my lack of patience that lead to my cursing problem.