We didn't really make any changes to the basement of our new house.  It's called the "Cardinals Basement" by us and many of our neighbors, and for good reason.  The basement, in it's entirety, is painted with red and blue with St. Louis Cardinals Fatheads secured to the walls (more on that later). 

I claimed a section of the basement as my own office space, but didn't repaint anything.  We (Jason) wanted to keep the theme of the basement the same. 

My office is located in the back wing of our finished basement, next to Katherine's playroom.  It's actually more than just an office, it's also my sewing and design studio, a craft room, and small ballet studio. 

Here's a look at the space of the basement that's all mine (and Katherine's):














With the upstairs of our house finally painted, it's feeling more and more like home.  Our walls on the main level are still bare, and I'm obsessively trying to find the right pieces to hang on them.  I'm trying to channel my inner Joanna Gaines. 
 

When Jason is working nights, it gives Katherine and I (mainly me) a chance to eat things we normally wouldn't get to try when he's home for meals.  Jason's not an overly picky eater, but....no.  Actually he is.  But I digress. 

We usually just go with the flow when Jason's not home for dinner.  We can do anything.  Occasionally we drive through somewhere or pick up take out from one of our favorite places.  Most often though, we have a homemade dinner at home.  Just the two of us.   

Sometimes we try something new.  Like the night I just threw some stuff in a bowl and called it "Burrito/Taco Bowl."  This bowl contained ground beef (you could also use ground turkey) with taco spices, grilled green and red bell peppers, avocado, steamed brussel sprouts, and cheese in a wheat tortilla. 

Some nights it's as easy as pancakes.  On this night, we had chocolate chip pancakes with a side of eggs.

Another night I made orange chicken (recipe) and chow mein (recipe). 

I've recently become acquainted with our outdoor grill.  While I usually let Jason so all of the grilling, it's nice to grill up something when he's away.  Grilling fruit is my new "thing."  I made this grilled chicken and watermelon salad the other night, which also included feta cheese, sliced almonds, and Greek yogurt cucumber dressing. 



One of our favorite things to make is slow cooker mac and cheese (using this recipe).  It's super easy, as with most slow cooker meals, but it does make a lot of mac and cheese.  We usually have tons left over.


While it's nice to have the freedom to do whatever at dinnertime, it's always great to have Jason back home for dinners during day shifts. 

It's hard to believe it's the middle of July already.  This summer seems to be flying by, probably because we've been busy settling into our new house.  We took a break from our normal activities for the summer so that we could actually have a relaxing summer.  Each week, I take Katherine on some kind of outing, whether it be a trip to the water park or a crafts class at Michael's. 

We invested in a blow-up pool for Katherine, which has been a blast in our now level backyard with plenty of sunlight. 

We've had backyard picnics and lots of playtime outside with the neighborhood kids. 

This week we celebrated our dog Callie's 10th birthday.  Katherine wanted to "plan" the party and immediately started making "lists."  I guess she's been watching her Mama too much.  Katherine insisted on making a yellow cake with chocolate icing with sprinkles.  She wanted party hats and small "dog cakes" for Callie and Sammie.  So, that's exactly what we did.  Katherine even made Callie a birthday card, which Callie was grateful for.   Callie got lots and lots of hugs on her birthday.  It was the cutest thing. 


In addition to having lots of summer fun, we've almost got our living room/ foyer/ hallway painted.  If you follow me on Instagram, then you've seen some of our progress.  The new house is slowly coming together. 

There's still plenty of summer ahead of us.  I look forward to more days of sunshine and smelling of sunscreen and bug spray at the end of the day. 
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When I was growing up, there was an old abandoned building that sat adjacent to my parents' property.  The building was probably once some kind of neighborhood grocery store or something, but it had sat empty for as long as I could remember.  One summer, it was purchased and converted into a small one room church.  There was never a huge crowd attending this church, probably a dozen or so during "services." 

Not long after this church was established, we learned that their goal was to bring the Word of God to their neighbors.  Near and far.  It might sound legit at first.  Isn't that what most churches strive to do?  But this particular church, the one only separated from our backyard by a shotgun house and a wooden privacy fence, decided to hang big speakers to the outside of their building broadcasting their every church service to the neighborhood. 

Now, I love Jesus. But I don't need to hear a monotone sermon followed by off-key monotone singing blaring loudly as I try to float in the backyard pool.  So night after night (they seemed to have church a lot) we would listen to the hymns as we swam in our pool.

What made this little church even more problematic was that the song choices were always about blood.  Jesus' blood.  Power in the blood.  Are you washed in the blood?  Covered by the blood.  Nothing but the blood of Jesus.   

I had grown up in church and had heard all of these hymns sung over and over, and when I was older realized what the blood of Jesus meant.  But for crying out loud.  Every song? 

To make it even creepier the "song leader" who led the congregation in these bloody songs (and apparently had a microphone that fed right to the outside speakers) was a creepy songster who made the songs about blood all that much more eerie.  Have you ever heard "The Memory Remains" by Metallica?  You know the slightly unsettling vocals throughout the song (sung by Marianne Faithfull -- I Googled it)?  That's what this voice sounded like.  Day in and day out.

There were several calls to the police, and my dad threatened to go cut the wire to the speakers, but the blood music would play on.  It got to the point to where every time we had a pool party, Blood Church would start up the choir and start singing about blood.  We'd try to drown them out with my dad's stereo (which also had outside speakers), blasting the grunge music of the 90's. But to no avail.

They even tried to out-song us during a pool party we were hosting for the youth group at our church, oddly enough. 

My mom used to joke that they were over there "handling snakes" in the make-shift church.  I know exactly what they were doing.  Annoying the hell out of me.  No pun intended. 

After that summer, the church finally went silent.  I don't know if they relocated or if the congregation got tired of singing about blood.  I never heard another monotone song about blood after that. 

As I sat in church this past Sunday, with the praise band playing an upbeat, peppy version of "There Is Power In The Blood," I was suddenly back in high school, floating in my parents' pool, listening to my jams.....then abruptly startled by a Marianne Faithfull-type voice singing Are You Washed In The Blood? 

I guess those hymns will never ever be the same to me again.  Ever. 

I feel like my three-year-old has a Fourth of July hangover.  She was up way past her bedtime last night, she refused to get out of bed this morning, and she has lost her voice.  She partied pretty hard yesterday, even though she hated the loud fireworks. 

Several days ago, we made firework crafts to get ready for the big day.  (By the way, this was probably the easiest craft and it kept Katherine occupied for all of ten minutes.)
The Fourth felt more like Halloween with the creepy fog and cooler morning temps, but regardless we had some fun.  We threw poppers in the garage until the clouds finally parted late afternoon and the temperatures started soaring. 



It turns out Katherine hates the loud booms of fireworks almost as much as our dogs.  Luckily we were able to borrow some noise cancelling headphones.  She was happily oblivious to any fireworks after that.  Just give her a shiny glow stick and let her go. 


Even sparklers wouldn't impress this kid, really.  Maybe next year.

We've been in full "Fourth" mode this week, despite all of the rain we've had.  I hope it dries out just long enough for us to have a fun Fourth of July. 

Since it's been kind of rainy, I've been busy inside making festive desserts for us to have this week. 

Here are some of our favorite summertime treats:

Angel food cake with strawberries and homemade whipped cream.  Angel food cake is surprisingly easy to make.  You can find a box mix at the grocery store, or use a homemade recipe. 

Speaking of strawberries, a good ol' fashioned white chocolate dipped strawberry with festive sprinkles is always a big hit around here. 

It's been one of those weeks around here, so a nice glass of wine is almost a necessity.  Why not make it festive with a Fire Cracker Popsicle?

We had a cookout at my parents' house over the weekend, so I made an ice cream cake to bring for dessert.  This was actually pretty easy to make but looked like it was a professional job.
 
One of my all-time favorite Fourth of July treats is this pie I made last year.  I was sure it was going to be an epic fail, but it turned out to be a Pinterest win.  

I bought a huge package of party poppers this week at Sam's Club so that Katherine can have some Fourth of July fun without having to actually light anything on fire.  It came with 500 pieces of popper fun, and I'm surprised to say we've already almost gone through the whole package.  Oh well. 

Happy Fourth of July!