home of the brave

Happy belated 4th of July! We celebrated by having family over, some of whom hadn't yet seen the house. Carolyn, Mom & Dad, Susie & John, Luke, Grampa Stimson and Sandra, Phyllis, and Mike & Yolanda came over for burgers and hot dogs (the grill works great!). Matt and I figured out it was the first time we've hosted a party ... ever. I made homemade strawberry ice cream, which was a first for me too. It turned out really well. After the meal and a few people called it a night (John, Luke and Susie had to go see Spam-a-lot) the rest of us played a few rounds of "Pigs," one of the best games ever. And Piper was on her best behavior, due in part I'm sure to the fact we had her harnessed to try to prevent escape attempts. She made the rounds sitting in people's laps and being adored. And we decided our house is really good for entertaining, so I don't think this was our last party! It was a complete success, but then we chose to experiment with our hosting skills by having people over who were easy to please :)

Matt started back at the office on Thursday. A lot of people were out for a long weekend, but those that were there were very happy to see him back. He caught up on all the office gossip and news. We've continued doing little house projects, and our latest was outdoors. We got all the weeds pulled and things spruced up in the front yard that we could. We mulched some areas in the way front that we don't have a plan for yet, and we planted a couple plants next to some happy-seeming plants in the beds right before the driveway. The existing plants were kind of wild-looking and seemingly thriving on neglect and there were always bees and butterflies visiting them. So we put some more butterfly-friendly specimens out there - a butterfly bush and a purple coneflower. I'll let you know how they do. I also got some earthworm-poop-based plant food and gave most of the plants a snack. I hope they liked it.

Last night we had a really pleasant evening with Taylor Bradley and his girlfriend Alice. They are house-sitting in Lake Highlands about a 90-second drive from here and we went over and swam and ate Taylor's spectacular bratwurst. Then we played the board game "Battle of the Sexes" which was less fun than we hoped but still had the girls and boys appropriately miffed at each other. Some of the questions were kind of cheap though (or insulting to male intelligence) - do we really think the average guy doesn't know the two colors that mix together to make pink?

Matt and I visiting our happy little Dallas Public Library branch on Audelia Road again today. We got 11 books, including a home improvement book, two paint books, a Texas gardening book, and the one I already read about puppy care/training. Just getting prepared, you know? Next Sunday we're hosting Lisa, Eric, and Miles and their two dogs so we'll get a feel for what canines think about the house. But I think when we get back from Colorado I'm really going to be itching to get Piper a doggy brother or sister.