Summer came like cinnamon

Sugar's favorite cousins

5 reasons it's been festive having Erin stay with me this summer

5. She keeps my (evil) cat entertained and extremely spoiled

4. She always knows exactly what kind of snack to get me.

She is the only one who completely understands all of my "food fussy" rules.

3. She makes me do stuff for which I initially drag my feet but which I always am glad did.

  Like swimming for hours.

Getting my phone fixed

. Going tubing down the Brandywine River.

 Listening to Justin Beiber.

 Seeing Magic Mike...umm, Snow White. 

2. She makes me dinner.

 It sounds lame but after years of coming home to an empty apartment and trying to think up

something to cook when I am so tired,

it feels like magic when someone else has a plate of spaghetti set out for you. 

1. Erin makes me laugh so hard.

We have this ongoing debate about me being awake too much at night.
 (I wake up once or twice for a drink, etc)

So, I was trying to sneak into the kitchen to get a drink the other night and (of course) it woke Erin up.
 (she has the hearing of a bat!)

 Anyway, later that day she tells me that she didn't think I was getting up for a drink but I was; in fact, doing a "dry run" in my plot to murder her in the middle of the night.

It doesn't sound funny, but it was!!

Who accuses their sister of having a few midnight practice runs before going forward with their sinister murder plot?

The last two summers have been epic.

Last summer I moved up from NC and spent most of the summer having crazy fun with Danielle and the kids.

 This summer, Erin came back east and has been entertaining me. 

I guess that means that next summer is the summer of me and...Junior?

 Yikes.

Lori Ann

It's all right

My three favorite pictures of the first week in July 2012

 I love Pennsylvania sunsets.

 I've seen the sun set over St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and behind the mountains in Idaho and in Colorado, where the stars feel so close you could almost touch them.

 Nothing; in my mind, comes close to comparing to the beauty of a Pennsylvania sunset.

 Elizabeth Mae

. She's in perpetual motion.

Dinner at my parents.

With a delicious centerpiece of their cat, aptly named Sour Kraut.

 Apparently he joins them for dinner every night.

Lori Ann

5

I know, I know, I know....

I completely over load this blog with videos of my nieces and nephews

 .But this one is the best EVER.

 You're Welcome.

 Lori Ann

For amber waves of grain

I like to make resolutions.

 Not really to keep them, but I really do love to make them.

I've resolved to do all of the following
(at some point)

-Not play Settlers of Catan for 4 years
(I think I lasted a week)

 Give up all soda
 (I've lasted about a day on that one)

 Stop reading trashy novels
 (I've been working on this for about..umm...20 years)

So, I am not actually great about achieving my resolutions.

 Today I decided I wanted to change that pattern.

I wanted to make a simple resolution and keep it. 

My resolution is to

 Find Happiness

My life has kind of been idling along  for the last few years; without a lot of direction, and I've been content to just go along with whatever came my way. 

I've never actively looked for happiness.

I've been content with being comfortable

. A lot of times I've counted on others to provide me with happiness or at least something like it. 

But I need to do this for myself.

Because I don't want to be living a life of quiet despair.

 I don't want to get to the end of my life and discover that I have not lived. 

Anyway,

Happy 236th birthday, America- land that I love.

 I'm intensely proud to be an American.

 It's such a blessing.

Lori Ann

This madhatter's tea party is about to come to an end...

These are two quotes that I have seen on facebook lately and really loved. 

We are in the middle of our infamous staycation. 

My sisters and my 4 favorite little people are here.

 We ate mac and cheese by the pool. 

Yeah, this is pretty much the best vacay ever!!

Lori Ann

She's got a smile

Random Sunday Night Updates

I like to keep my apartment really cold.

Like ice box cold.

Then I blog from underneath a pile of blankets:)

This is not my kitten.

 But I now get why people have more than one kid. I have new kitten fever!

Yes, I rummaged through this.

 Because I was bullied into it.

 By MY MOTHER.

Not pictured:

Me, drinking coke with socks on my hands.

Me, singing along with Sweet Child of Mine and "dancing" in my bathroom.
(yes, Allison- this is an appropriate use of quotation marks!)

Me, reading aloud a romance novel and translating it into Spanish.

There were many words I didn't know.

 I mean, I never have the opportunity as a therapist to say "reckless passion" or " heaving bodice".

 I either need to upgrade my reading material or branch out in my therapy.

 Hmm..I wonder which one...

Lori Ann

p.s.- Reckless passion is "la pasión imprudente"

and 

Heaving bodice is "agitado corpiño"

Just FYI. 

Just Dance

I've been home for a few days.

 I know I've said it a thousand and one times but it means more today than ever.

I love my family.

They are beautiful.

 I don't know who or where I'd be without them.

En particulier vous, papa.

Merci pour tout. Je suis si heureux que de tous les papas du monde, je t'ai.

Lori Ann