Moving on...

Clark survived his first day of school. Ever. Unless you count 1st grade. And a week of 2nd. Which I don't. I made him the best oatmeal cranberry cookies, thanks to Martha Stewart, as a little snack (yes I'm unemployed and bored) and sent him off to school.

I sort of wondered if this is what young moms feel like when their first child goes to school. I was so excited for him but it was such a boring day with him gone and I tried to do the laundry. I definitely need a job.

Speaking of which, I've got quite a few piano students, so that is slowly building up my time, and no word from any of the thousands of companies I've sent my resume to. Big surprise. But on the bright side, I do qualify for unemployment (yay) which after 1 month and a 1/2 of miscommunication only on their part of course, they finally got all the information straight, much to my relief.

Trade Secret is still trying to hire me back with their new paperwork which means that I will work commission only, which is fine because I have enough clients and walk-ins to make it worth it. They want me to pay my own malpractice insurance so that's still an issue, but might be worked out. I'm going in tomorrow to look over the paperwork and might be back in a week. My old boss is really easy going about the schedule so I'll still be able to keep my piano students if I decide to take the job.

We'll see.

Summer

Since it's been a while since I've blogged, I'm just posting these pictures all together. At the beginning of summer Clark and I got free tickets to the baseball game. It was fun. We stayed for maybe 30 minutes. We didn't know the team, and the players were really bad. Minor leagues. Not the same as watching the D-backs.

It rained that night and stopped just in time for the game. Awesome weather.

For the 4th of July we went to Texas and stayed with my brother Glenn and his family. We had SO MUCH FUN!!! It was such a nice vacation for us! Saturday morning we all went and picked blueberries. Yum!

They were so good!! We ate as much as we picked!

We even had live music while we picked. It was pretty cool, until they started doing kareoke. 30 minutes of the worst singing I've ever heard in my life, everyone was ready to leave! But it was fun making fun.

Emma had the most blueberries picked of everyone.

This is the machine that filters/cleans the blueberries for you.

Us.

And of course, the hayride! The rode us around the farm and let us feed the catfish in their pond. It was so cool to see those ugly fish come up from the water. None of those pictures turned out.

And my nephews had fun making faces for the camera! I had just as much fun taking them!

I didn't even post all of them, if that gives you any idea of how long we amused ourselves with that!!!

We were sad to go, but I'm so glad it's only a 6 1/2 hour drive. We definitely can't wait to go back. Cindy sent us home with a bag of blueberries, which we ate the whole way home, made a pie, and ate in our oatmeal for a few weeks. That was my first time having fresh blueberries. Not counting the fresh mushy ones from the store that cost $$$. It was delicious!

Yes, I made a square pie. Or should I say pie squared? Yes I am a dork. Anyway, turns out I don't have a pie pan. So I made it in a casserole dish that had really tall sides so the crust caved in while it baked. It was delicious!!! First time eating blueberry pie too. Yum!!

People here in Missouri are always giving us eggs. Everyone has chickens and so we usually have 4 dozen eggs at a time. My cousin Liz posted a recipe for angel food cake so I tried it. Not a hard recipe and I never want instant again!!! It's a huge difference. And it's 100x healthier from scratch.

Okay, we had the weirdest looking frog ever hiding out above our door. I'm sad the picture didn't turn out, someday I'm getting a new camera. But it was huge, and it was weird.

And finally, more pictures of my garden. We have the tiniest little watermelon, it's so cute! We have other things growing but the watermelon is my fav. Full shot. Our corn is doing so good!! I'm so excited to eat it all!!! It comes up to my chin, just to give you an idea on how tall it is.

update

Almost a month ago I lost my job. I haven't posted lately because I didn't feel like talking about it. No, I wasn't upset. I was too busy ENJOYING my time off. Is that bad?

A day later Clark and I left for Texas (pictures to come) and had such a relaxing weekend hanging out with my older brother and his family. It was nice forgetting about the job hunting I had to come home to. Blah.

With Clark and I sharing a car I wanted to try and teach piano from home so thanks to craigslist it's starting to work out for me. I have 10 students so far and I am loving it!

My life in a salon is not at an end though. Trade Secret laid-off all stylists who weren't commissioning. Being there only 2 months sealed my fate. But they are working on paperwork to rehire stylists on a commission only basis. Boo. No more milking the clock. But this new set up is PERFECT for me because now I have complete control over my schedule which means I will have time for piano lessons and can still work at a salon to support us while I build up my students.

During this month break I was so afraid all of my clients would either find a new salon, or go to one of my co-workers. NOPE!!!!

I went in the other day to talk about my schedule and found out my clients love me. It's true. They refused to go to anyone else and the front desk has a list of people to call when I go back.

Not only that but one of my clients came in wanting a deep condition treatment. Refused to let anyone else give it to her.

YAY!!!
Sad to say, I would not be THAT loyal.

It's just a conditioner.

But I am so glad that all these people, most of them only coming to me 1-3 times, mostly once, only want me to do their hair.

Until August, I'm enjoying watching movies on Netflix, gardening, exercising and being COMPLETELY lazy!

"It's So Fluffy"

Precious

After church as Clark stood waiting for me to pick a craft (stake craft day and I am extremely indecisive) and a little boy ran up to Clark and gave him a big hug.

I was a bit startled thinking maybe Clark knew him.

Nope.

Just a random little boy. His mom laughed and said her son gets a feeling about people and just likes to hug them. I sort of gave the boy a second look thinking maybe he was handicap.

He wasn't.

I felt bad for thinking that.

His mom and I laughed about hugging strangers as kids (from that height it's easy to confuse legs). I finally decided on a craft. No craft. Although I want to participate, I don't want to spend money on something I'll just throw away. No offense meant to my new ward. Just not the craftiest bunch.

On the drive home Clark tells me that while we were standing by the craft table he started thinking about how much he wanted kids. While lost in those thoughts, that's when the little 4 year old grabbed ahold of Clark's legs.

Too funny. Maybe that kid CAN sense things, like his mother was saying. But really, that was perfect timing. Rather hilarious.

Clark has his

mulberry tree

Clark discovered 3 Mulberry trees by our house last week. Very delicious!

We picked all afternoon...

And made a delicious galette! Although, berries don't make good galettes. Juice everywhere. We still ate it. The galette only tasted good the second day because they aren't a sour berry.

We are stocking up on berries to try out a lacto-fermented drink. I'll let you know how that one turns out.