Life happened!

Wow! It has been three weeks plus since my last post. I was just so busy with summer's end activities..... moving kids to college, organizing/re-vamping & cleaning rooms, gardening, freezing veggies, mowing the incessantly growing lawn, cleaning up our rental property left in shambles both inside & out by our less-than-stellar tenants!, taking bike rides with my hubby and reading lots of good books. As my post title states- life happened!! Things have settled down a bit, so I'll try again to be a little more consistent! I'll share some photos I've taken recently. Tonight I did the 'foodie blogger' thing and took pictures of our supper. Iowa fed grilled pork chops!, homemade pineapple salsa with peppers, garlic, onions, & mint fresh from the garden, garden fresh potatoe slices sauteed in pecan oil and then baked ALL washed down with a 'cool one', a 12 oz Leinenkugel Berry Weiss! TGIF!!!!!

We're starting to feel a touch of fall here! Refreshingly crisp at night with low humidity and great temps! Also, have had NO rain since Tuesday when we got a half an inch. The faucet has been running pretty full out all summer, and the river through town has left its banks an unprecedented three times- the last of which was in the second week of August! We were lucky here, unlike other parts of Iowa, and no major flood damage occurred.

I mentioned in the beginning of this post how I have been reading! I finished Steig Larsson's dark and suspenseful trilogy and just loved the whole series! It was amazingly easy to get quite attached to the flawed yet, at the same time, highly endearing characters. Do any of you feel the same? In a completely different, and I mean different!, genre, I finished "Take Four", the final book in Karen Kingsbury's Above the Line series. It was good. Looking forward to the Bailey Flannigan series which will be a continuation of sorts of the Above the Line series focusing on one of the main characters. I'm also completely taken by Alexander McCall Smith's "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series. They are just the cutest stories. Love them! Just delightful reads! So, as you can see, I've had my nose firmly in a book whenever I've had the chance! I usually try to limit my reading to just before bed.............. otherwise it is amazing how a day can fly by reading a book!!!! :-)

I saw my first movie on the big screen in ages recently! A friend and I caught a weekday matinee showing of "eat, pray, love" starring Julia Roberts. Julia did good job, but I must say I was not enamoured of the storyline. Maybe I should have read the book first- I just found it, shall I say, a little bit too 'new age' for my tastes. Anybody share my feelings or, in agreement with my sister, do you think it was the greatest movie ever and want to catch the first plan to Bali?! I really enjoyed catching a flick with a friend, however. I hope to do that again soon.

Well, I think I'll share a couple more photos and then call it a night. I've got more books to read!! First, an updated photos of the kitties!

Then a picture of my fall centerpiece in the formal dining room. Yeah, I'm definitely getting a bit anxious for a long, mosquito-free, beautiful fall season!

Good night!! Peace!