Smoke a Little Smoke

YEARS ago I bought Steve a smoker for Father's Day.

I put that sucker together myself and smoked him ribs that day.

I didn't just buy him the smoker and let him open the box. 

I was pretty proud of myself! 

He's never used it.

I have used it maaaaybe 5-8 times? 

Not that I didn't like it. It's time consuming.

We don't have the fancy blue-tooth smoker that allows us to check the temp from wherever. 

It's a regular, schmegular Weber smoker.

#webersmoker

Shucking corn together 

Ava helping

These were amazing. We did chicken wings (duh) and some hot Italian sausages. SO GOOD. 

I can't wait to grill and smoke more this summer! 

Looking forward to trying different things and getting some use out of it this year. 

First Time In The Pool

We opened the pool last weekend.

We filled it almost all the way up.

Then we let the massive rain storm take over.

Steve shocked it, added chlorine and then we let it sit for a few days.

The water was pretty clear, but all the gross stuff settled to the bottom, so it was time to vacuum. 

We had nice weather this weekend but the temp was supposed to drop pretty dramatically. We told the girls - who had been BEGGING to get in the pool for DAYS now - they should probably go in while it was nice out.

The water was way, way, WAY too cold for us adults. 

The air temperature was like 83 by like noon. 

I got most of the gunk out of the bottom of the pool but it could use another pass. 

So exciting! It definitely feels like summer when the pool gets opened.

And I'm glad we got it opened before Memorial Day. 

Pool's Open!

We did it!

I'm surprised we did it, actually.

I thought it'd be closer to Memorial Day before we had time to get this sucker opened.

BUT, the weather has been nice, like no rain for DAYSSSS. So we thought it'd be smart to do what we could while we had the weather and time.

So Sunday morning Steve and I got up and he just was like "hey, let's do it" - ok then!

We got the cover off without much trouble. We also didn't syphon all the water out like we (Steve) did last year. LOL. He pumped out so much pool water it took forever to fill it last year. 

We get water down in Cheshire. $.25 cents for 75 gallons

This trailer has proven to be incredibly useful. We did only like 2 trips before we took a break and ran other errands. 

Now we need to shock the water, put chemicals in and then we'll be done!

We should be able to get that done in the next day or so.

It's supposed to hit 87 degrees on Friday. Wut. 

Mother's Day!

I know it's a few days late, but Happy Mother's Day!

We had a very busy weekend, Mother's Day included. 

I had a work event Friday night, so the girls hung out with my mom for a few hours. 

Saturday the girls had a sleepover at a friend's house, so I had almost all of Saturday free. ALONE.

BY MYSELF.

I wasn't sure what to do with myself. 

I dropped the girls off at 2pm and....went to Wegmans. 

LOL. 

I live a fancy life. 

Anyway, when I got home and unloaded all the groceries, I got a text from a friend asking if I wanted to meet down at the Harley Shop for some event they were holding that afternoon.

Ok, sure. Why not?

It was a little chilly and windy, but sunny. 

We hung out there and had a drink before calling it "way too fucking cold even with the sun" and headed back to my friend's house to chill for a bit.

I made my way back home around the time Steve got home from work.

Sunday morning we picked up the girls from their friend's house and went to Steve's parents' for lunch and to visit for a bit.

Grandma was inside. It was a lovely day!

Annnd Steve scored a water fountain? From the neighbor. He wants it for his future barn. 

From there we headed to my mom's house to spend the afternoon with her and have dinner over there. 

I had originally wanted to bake a cake while over there, but the weather was just too nice. So instead, we helped her mulch. 

We also promised like 2 years ago to help her with her garden, but my mom can't wait for things to happen so she kinda just does it herself.

Anyway, this year, I promised to make her something that would make it easier to garden. That was the hope.

I had planned to remove what she had going on and replace it entirely, but she didn't want to wait.

Steve did make one of these tall planter-style garden beds for her and she loves it! We brought it to her yesterday. This way she doesn't have to bend down all the time while tending to her vegetables.

Regular pressure treated wood for the bottom, cedar sides since it'll be for veggies. 

this trailer has been so incredibly useful.

No pics of it at mom's house at the moment since it was like 8pm when we finally dropped it off. She was SO excited!

I'm so glad we're able to do things like this for her. I mean, she literally feeds us and takes care of our kids all the time. Nothing better than moms. Amiright?

Working Out - 100 Weeks Into My Fitness Journey (!!!)

In the words of Pam Hupp:

WOAH, WOAH, WOAH.

I can't believe it, folks!

ONE HUNDRED weeks down???

What the actual fuck???

I can't believe I did it! And I'm continuing to do it!

This has truly become my lifestyle now and I really can't imagine what my life was life before focusing on my health and fitness. 

Garden 2022

I'm SO excited you guys.

I took last year off from gardening.

I don't have a good reason, other than I was being lazy.

But not this year!

My mom and I are getting very excited talking about what we're planting this year. For as long as I could remember, my mom had a vegetable garden.

Yesterday seemed like a great day to get started.

The weather is finally breaking - although I'm starting my seeds in my basement again.

There are 100 pods right there. Several seeds per pod, in hopes that I get at least ONE seedling going per pod. 

We have cucumbers, zucchini, butternut squash, green beans, tomatoes, lettuce, green peppers. 

Fingers crossed! 

Late Season Snow

What the ACTUAL fuck is going on?

April 25

Even MR's face is like what is going on here. 

Just a few days before, I was sweating my ass off, trying to clean our boat. 

Super windy at the lake. 

But I do think that's the last of the snow.

We got close to 70 over the weekend and I think the next couple of weeks we will start to really feel the warmth.

Waking up to that was just horrible though. Just horrible.

It's hard to find motivation when it's dreary, rainy and muddy. Bleh.

I don't want to wish the month of May away, but I'll be happy when the ground isn't just mushy mud.