Collage of Events

I have never really been very good about taking pictures of all the memories I make.  I feel as though I will come across as one of those obnoxious people who are always pointing their camera at you, making you stop everything you are doing, to strike a pose.  This being the case whenever I download pictures from the camera, it is always a strange assortment, just a shot or two from different things going on, or just something rather boring that I mean to send to a specific person.  This evening when I got home from work I thought that I needed to take a picture of the garden to send to my mom, she likes to hear about its progress.  So this post is a collage from my most recent download, and narratives to go along.

Ahh, this is a good one to start with.  Not only am I trying to show off my legs, but I am also showing off my pain tolerance with those 2-inch needles inserted in my IT band.  Actually it didn't really hurt at all.  Clay's brother-in-law has recently become certified to perform Trigger Point Dry Needling (TDN) which essentially uses acupuncture needles to create small tears in your muscle, to encourage healing and repair.  With my constant battle with ITBS, I begged him to bring some needles out when they were here in June.  Can't say it worked a miracle, but I am looking forward to regular treatments this fall when they relocate to the East Coast.  He says it usually takes a minimum of 4 sessions.

Clay and I celebrated 2 years of marriage!  And he made me a wonderful meal which consisted of lamb (purchased at Kroger on Manager's Special!), swiss chard and snap peas from the garden, and potatoes from the garden, it was wonderful!

You may not get this from this picture....but we finally got a new couch.  The one in the picture came from a neighbor who was going to get rid of it.  That was about a year ago.  Clay and I went down to Charlotte a few weeks back and got a new leather couch (yippee)....so that means I have been more lax about letting our snuggly dog Macey on the old couch to snuggle (since we plan to get rid of it soon anyways).

When your power goes out for 2 days because of a crazy summer wind storm (they called it a derecho), you make rolls in a dutch oven!  Who says you can't bake without electricity?!

Garden update for mom, snap peas on their way out, cucumbers and squash going strong, first tomato is turning red...and we have volunteers in the middle of the garden (some kind of melon, and some kind of winter squash)

I have started making pickles by means of fermentation, using herbs from the herb garden to flavor, cucumbers from the garden, and grape leaves (they supposedly help them stay crunchy) from our grape vine.  (I guess the salt to make the brine came from Kroger!)