too deep for words.

My grandparents were in an accident yesterday morning - a propane tank blew up in their house. My grandma was not injured, but my grandpa was flown to the hospital and remains in guarded condition. Please pray for him. Pray for my grandma. Pray for their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. Pray for family members who are unable to make it home to be with family. Pray for my sister who leaves for her first year of college tomorrow and is still traumatized by the experience. Pray, pray, pray.

I have been clinging to Romans 8:26: "The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what we ought to pray for, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words..."

Below are some of the news reports with more information about the accident.

WHAM News Channel 13

YNN Rochester

WHEC News Channel 10

ode to summer

Work starts again for me on Monday. I'm always astonished by how quickly the summer flies by. I was talking with someone the other day and mentioned that the month of August is like a Sunday night - you know school is looming. Some of the distinct warning signs of summer's close...

1. Peaches. Sweet, sweet peaches & nectarines - the taste of summer & sunshine.

2. Realizing you need to change into jeans & a sweatshirt for that bonfire at night.

3. Fresh corn on the cob.

4. The hum of cicadas.

5. Crayon boxes and notebooks and pencils and erasers and packages of paper lining the aisles of grocery stores.

6. Premature orange and yellow leaves peppering otherwise green trees.

So, we try to make the most of our dwindling days by grilling as often as possible & enjoying as much fresh produce as possible!

[peach blueberry cobbler]

[chipotle pork wraps... yummm]

What signifies the end of summer to you, and how are you enjoying it??

i'd like to call back summertime

have her stay for just another month or so

but she's got the urge for going

so i guess she'll have to go

-joni mitchell

cake pops!

The other night we went over to Maria & Troy's for game night & cake pops! Maria had a lovely display of her delicious cake pops: salted caramel and spice, oreo, and my favorite, strawberry cheesecake. Yummm!

When I offered to bring something and Maria told me the theme was "cake pops", I got really excited because I've never made them before and now I had an excuse to make them! I looked up Bakerella for some inspiration and was a little overwhelmed, but still determined. Mine didn't have to look awesome, I just wanted to be able to say I'd made cake pops!

As it turns out, cake pops aren't nearly as difficult as I had thought they might be. You bake a cake. Cool the cake. Break it up into little chunks. Mix frosting into it. Roll into balls and let chill for awhile. Put a stick in it. Chill for even longer. Decorate as desired.

After browsing the internet, I realized that I had missed my opportunity to celebrate National S'mores Day, and realized that s'more cake pops might be delightful! So I decided to create my own.

I had originally planned on using a box mix of white cake and making my own marshmallow frosting to stir in, but time was of the essence, so I just used a can of vanilla frosting (for shame, I know...). I do think the mallow frosting would have contributed a little more to the s'more effect, but they turned out pretty well.

Coated them in candy melts, sprinkled on some graham cracker crumbs and topped with cut up mallows and tiny Hershey chunks.

Although they were tasty, I have to admit... I would still take a regular ole s'more over these any day!

getting old & things that embarrass my mom

You know those moments when you realize, oh my word - I'm getting old? Don't get me wrong, I like to think that 26 is still pretty young. But there are still those things that make childhood seem forever behind you. Things like paying a mortgage. Getting your first real paycheck. Thinking to yourself, teenagers today...

For me, one of those things is coupons and grocery shopping. I don't know what it is, but seeing little deductions from the original price on my receipt and coming home to organize my produce and cans and boxes... there's something immensely satisfying in that.

Now, I'm not a crazy coupon-clipper - I'd like to be one of those women who find amazing deals that allows them to get 14 boxes of tampons for free and 5 cases of toilet paper for 20 cents. Not quite there yet. However, I have recently started to compare prices at our two closest grocery stores - Kroger & Meijer. Meijer almost always wins, but every once in awhile there is a weekly special at Kroger that ends up being cheaper. Yes, teenagers of America - roll your sarcastic little eyes because I have become one of those. My grocery shopping takes me to different stores. I look forward to aggravating my children with this practice in the future.

Getting excited about a good deal is just thrifty, right? Not old.

Anyway, on the way home from the grocery store today, I was at a 2-way stop, waiting for traffic to clear, when a big black SUV (by the way, thanks Mariska Hargitay - now I have to pause and think to make sure I'm using the right acronym...) pulled into the left turn lane, obstructing my view of traffic coming from the left. Rude. In an act that surely would have appalled my mother, I threw up my left arm in a very obvious signal of exasperation, and to top it off, shook my head in annoyance. I'm sorry, Mom - I know that if I had done that to a ref at a soccer game, you would have been mortified. But... the dude backed up his car. Yeah, that's right.

(Is another sign of aging exasperated driving? Or is that just the 'burbs getting to me?)

girls' night, aka extreme geocache

I've been in a small group of girls (I still struggle to refer to myself and females my age as "women"...) for the past 3 and a half-ish years. The group has changed a bit since I first started, but what's been constant is the love and support and accountability and FUN!

Last night we had girls' night, and in the words of my dear friend Andrea, "It started with margaritas and ended with rabies."

We began our evening together at Ellie's house - bean & guacamole dip, grilled pineapple, chicken fajitas, luscious sunshine and a cool breeze on the deck, conversations both deep and silly... As we were wrapping up dinner, tummies content, Ellie asked, "So... what should we do?!" Katy, ever the adventurer, excitedly exclaimed, "Let's go geocaching!"

After explaining what "geocaching" was to some of our group (Wait, so there will be a box? How does the box get there? Is it a treasure hunt? Are there prizes?), we decided a leisurely walk and casual search for a geocache would be pleasant. After some outfit changing ("I wore my sparkly skirt for girls' night!"), we doused ourselves in bug spray, grabbed flashlights and headed out the door, into the woods of... suburbia.

Slight oversight on our part - our daylight was rapidly waning. As it turns out, geocaching is significantly more difficult in the dark.

We crossed the street and entered the park, following our coordinates into a small patch of trees, at which point a bat swooped down approximately 4 inches from my face, prompting multiple screams and frenzied running and covering heads. We eventually got to the point where the geocache should have been and looked high and low, to no avail.

By this time, having endured multiple mosquito bites and a near bat attack, we decided to press on and look up another geocache. Almost two-tenths of a mile away. Psh. That was nothing to our fearless...ish troop. We got to the next location and again, were unable to locate anything! We looked up the next location, which was a quarter of a mile away, back past the house. We decided to make a pit stop at the house, re-apply bug spray, and perhaps get some refreshment in the form of ice cream. On the way back, we got honked at by a passerby. Yeah, girls' night!

Refueled, we stepped back out with dauntless resolve - the third time would surely be the trick! We crossed the street. We stumbled through dewy grass. We trekked across... the hospital parking lot. Behind the hospital is a marshy, swampy... pond? There were a few sections where our path went through some undergrowth and low-hanging branches, at which point we started giggling because here we were in the middle of Canton, fighting through random bushes between the hospital and the library. We were about to cut through a playground when a scampering creature caught our attention. No big deal - it's a skunk.

Now, as you may remember, our household has had a run-in with a skunk before. And I was not about to be the one getting hosed down and taking a tomato bath in yard in the dark. Suffice to say, there was much panicking. I will admit it, folks - I nearly abandoned our quest. But we watched the little fella scamper into his wooden & plastic playground kingdom (to quote Patti, "If I were a skunk, I would totally live here at night") and still pressed on. Back through the parking lot. We got a little turned around. Our coordinates led us to the edge of the parking lot ("The cameras are totally picking us up - we are going to be on the news tomorrow. Have you seen these women? Local small group arrested for trespassing..."). Again, we searched high and we searched low, and...

We found nothing.

We endured vicious, blood-sucking mosquitoes. We battled potentially rabid swooping bats. We withstood sketchy, ogling drivers. We struggled through hidden, flip-flop eating mud holes. We ran like babies from skunks.

All this, and no geocache.

The good news is - I think it's a memory we will not soon forget. And, being extreme geocachers, we do not quit that easily. We plan to revisit these spots to find the goods... in the daylight.

L-R: Katy, Patti, Ellie, Andrea, me, Mandy