July Roundup

I saw this idea (here) back in January and loved it. Now I'm finally ready to do my first roundup.

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?
Books: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd; Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel; Clean & Simple Scrapbooking, the Sequel by Cathy Zielske (who, don't forget, is one of my scrapbooking heroes.)
Magazines: Every Day with Rachel Ray

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?
Movies: You, Me & Dupree with Angie, Jana, Maria & Lona. It really spoke to our inner Carl-ness. "What's your policy on Columbus Day?" "Okay, this is important, that's why I gave you all permission to miss school."
TV shows: what are you, kidding me? Sometimes during the day or late, late at night I catch the reruns of old Law & Orders, that's about as good as it gets.

What special days did I celebrate and how?
Scott and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary with a dinner out to Maggiano's in St. Louis. We ate a truly obscene amount of food, from mozzerella marinara to eggplant parmesan to chicken piccatta to creme brulee (which I have to say was delizioso, even if it wasn't Italian.)

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?
Julie Kelley invited us to party and swim at her mom's to celebrate the 4th of July. Note to self: need to get the kids in swimming lessons.
Elliott Family Reunion, July 5-7. We traveled to Henry Horton State Park just outside Nashville, Tennessee for this event. There was golf, swimming, canoeing, a hayride and a lot of just hanging out and talking story. It was HOT and Katie & Bryn had trouble sharing their Nana. (Poor ol' Nana was worn out with trying to keep people happy.)
As previously mentioned, I got to go to the movies with Maria, Lona, Angie & Jana. Very cool group. Lona experienced her first Angie elbow. She's gonna fit right in with us, this girl.
SLAP Night at Zapata's. This is a very secret club, my other really cool group. Really can't talk about it.
Mom's Night Out for our MOPS group on the 25th. I put together a dinner at Olive Garden. Small turnout but it was all people that I really enjoyed being with. Andrew, the manager, really spoiled us with free dessert and a hefty discount off the rest of our tickets to make up for our hour and a half wait for a table after the general manager implied she would help us get a table quickly.
Stamp Club on the 28th--it got pushed back a week because Katrice was at the SU convention. I had so been looking forward to it. It was still fun but not as much fun as it would have been if Angie had been there. Jana will be gone next month, visiting family. I'm happy for her, of course, but I don't like it when we aren't all four there.

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try?
Big news in the Aebi family: Wendy & Scott are now splitting dinner duty by switching off each week. This is a change because for the last year, Scott has been doing almost 100% of the cooking. My mom gave us Rachel Ray's Express Lane Meals cookbook and we have been breaking it in with Chicken Piccatta Spinach Salad, Salmon Burgers with Caesar slaw, Garlic-Lime Shrimp, and Fillets of Sole Francese and Lemon-Basil Pasta. I just can't imagine why I didn't lose any weight this month.

What special or unusual perchases did I make?
Seems like I spent the month trying *not* to purchase...I was saving up for my Stampin' Up order, all of which was for materials files for my BPS class. It just can't get here soon enough to suit me!!

What were this months's disappointments?
I did far fewer workouts than I had planned to do. I am setting my August goal at 20 workouts.

What were my accomplishments this month?
I made a commitment to homeschooling William this year. I ordered the Kindergarten curriculum from My Father's World and overhauled my office/scrapspace with a major decluttering to give us a nice space to learn in.
I have completed the second month of my Library of Memories class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. It is amazing and I am more excited about scrapbooking than I have been in a long time. So excited, in fact, that I'm having trouble sleeping. Most nights I tiptoe back out of bed and scrap or sketch until the wee hours. Oh dear Lord, I have turned into my mother.