Vanilla Sunshine and Fire

     Over the semester I have developed a new love: vanilla lattes.  I love the coffee, and the vanilla, and the sweetness.  I had been going to Starbucks several times a week or every few weeks, and I currently cannot afford to do that, at all.  Another one of my favorite things is Haagan Daas Ice cream which is just sooo good.  The other morning I had the ingenious idea to put my vanilla bean ice cream into my coffee.  Let me tell ya, that was the best thing ever.  I can now spend my money on ice cream instead of one latte.  Which by the way, means I spend the same amount on one carton of ice cream that I would have spent on one latte.  In the words of Jonathan, I am enabling my addiction from home now!  O the joy of summer treats!  

     Now, to give credit where credit is due, I learned about this magical idea from the people I lived with during my internship last summer.  They have ice cream in their coffee every day.  If you haven’t tried this, I suggest you do.  Unless you don’t want to gain weight…cause then you may want to avoid this at all costs. Let’s just say ice cream in my coffee has made my summer just a little bit more happy and sunshiny in my heart.  

We have been having a lot of fires in our back yard since I got out of school.  I love fires at night, especially since it is still a bit chilly at night.  I love drinking my coffee and sitting by the fire.  I LOVE throwing random objects into the fire, like sticks, and cups, and marshmallows. The smell of the smoke always takes me back to camping trips in Michigan when we were all kids.  Messing around the fire with the Wolfsons and my family and whoever else came camping that year was always a highlight of my summer.  Currently we have been burning our fence that fell over during a storm this winter, but I realize that I probably need to start looking for a place for us to buy cheap wood so we can have more fires. Also, I had my parents buy the JUMBO marshmallows so we can have HUGE s'mores and HUGE firing mallows when they catch on fire. 

    Bonnie and her friends had a fire the other night and there were 20 people here at our house burning things and playing around.  I've had friends over twice so far and it is such a glorious thing to have people enjoy our yard with us!  

Picnic and Panic.

So, in typical JujieBee fashion Bonnie and I had quite the adventure today.  Our day started off rather boring, Bee had an exam and I had to finish my interviews for a class.  Then we packed up and went to a park for lunch where we ate some yummy food and got bored sitting in the grass. I think picnics are meant to be enjoyed by people who have nothing better to do afterwards, because feeling rushed at a picnic makes it get boring fast. It was nice to relax in the sunshine and read for a little bit though, no matter how much time we were there.  All that to say, we packed up and went home to get our tadpoles, which I decided to name Nemo since they survived the great massacre that occurred in our back yard when we took the cover off the pool.  So, we picked up our container of tadpoles and headed to the Willows, a cute little park about 5 minutes away.  We walked around the park looking for the perfect place to release our baby froggies, and Bonnie points out this cute little island with a bench.  So off we go, not really noticing that the geese are following us.  Abby and I cross the bridge and a goose immediately starts hissing and chasing us. Apparently there was a nest of goose eggs we didn't notice as we were crossing the bridge...typical. We screamed like crazy and jumped up onto the bench trying to figure out how to get down and off the island without being attacked by an angry momma goose.  Katie was there, and so she took pictures of the whole thing.  At one point I told Abby I would run the close way to the momma and she could run the far way cause I was wearing pants so if it attacked me it would hurt less, and as we were trying to gather the courage to run with our tiny twigs we had grabbed for protection, a guy walked up with his two little boys.  He saved the day!   So, as Bee and I ran screaming, he kicked at the goose and rescued us from the danger of the angry momma.  My favorite part was when he told his little boys that they saved the women.  So cute!  What a hilarious afternoon!!!

After our rescue, we still had rescuing of our own to do. Our Nemos, all 9 of them and their buggy friends, were still in the tupperware container waiting to be released.  We found a much safer location, and released our baby bull froggies into the wild.  Hopefully a few of them will grow up to annoy people  with their croaking for years to come!   This is our family portrait. :o)

We wish our baby tadpoles well in the big scary world of geese, and large fish.  May they grow up to annoy seniors from DCCS for years to come!  

Tadpoles and tents.

    Yesterday morning, as I was sleepily walking around our kitchen, my dad tells me if I want to save some tadpoles I would have to hurry because the pool cover was being drained, and was almost empty.  So, I grabbed a tupperware container and headed out to the pool. As it turns out, in just one dip of my container into the pool cover, I got more than enough tadpoles, nine to be exact.  The tadpoles also had other swimmy friends that I did not recognize, little green see-through guys.  Apparently they are mosquito larva.  As I recalled this story to my older sister Alli on the phone she said no one would thank me for that humanitarian effort.  I hate mosquitoes as well, so I completely understand.

     So, today our tadpoles are sitting happily in their tupperware container waiting to be released tomorrow in the wild.  After doing research I found out if you raise a frog in captivity you have to keep it forever, and Bonnie and I are not ready to be mothers to a bull frog, so tomorrow we shall be looking for a pond to set them free in. Joy o joy.

Also, cousin Katie is visiting for the week and as we both have some final assignments to finish up we are working on homework.  For those of you who do not live in Pennsylvania, it is very sunny and a perfect 70 degrees outside and we could not stand to stay inside. So, we did what any two girls would who had to use their computers but want to appreciate the weather, we built a tent on the porch.  As I write this I am sitting in the glorious outdoors with my chihuahua laying next to me, under a couple of blankets tied to the fence.  glorious day.

Pictures of the tadpole release to come!

She Said "Yes"!

As Bonnie and I (Jujie) sat on our porch tanning in 60 degree weather (yes we realize this is not quite normal) our dad was telling us about all of the tadpoles that are currently living in our pool cover. Apparently the frogs I heard when I couldn't sleep a few weeks ago made some babies, and now there are thousands of baby tadpoles swimming happily in the nasty water. Naturally, being a girl, I obviously wanted to save some. Duh. Bonnie was watching America's Next Top model and not really paying attention to me as I was going on and on about wanting a tadpole. So I turned to her as said, "Would you like to raise a tadpole with me?" And she said, "Yes!"

And so begins our summer.

(Pics of tadpole rescue will be updated soon!)