We have a lot of catching up to do...

Second hole in one in a row, thank you!
Ken and Sean at Dinner
My view of the ocean
Sean and I before dinner one night
Us chillin' on the beach
Another view...

Unfortunately, since I created my blog I haven't had any time to post a new entry. I'm already off to a bad start with this thing, but I hope the posts will become more regular.

Today is Sunday, and quite dreary outside. But the good news is that we finally got some rain!!! A solid month of 3-digit temps and little to no precipitation has left everything in Middle Tennesse completely dry and dead. Sean only had to mow twice this summer, which I'm sure he was glad about...but it was also a bummer because we didn't get to enjoy our amazing back yard as much as we'd hoped. Last summer we grilled out all the time, and we ate a lot of meals on the back patio. Some nights we'd take a bottle of wine out and talk for hours....coming up with brilliant business plans or ways to improve our home or how we were going to become self-made millionaires. But not so much this season. With 95 degree temps at 10 p.m., we didn't feel like subjecting ourselfs to the extreme humidity and bugs.

No, instead we stayed indoors running the AC on full blast and praying that it didn't die on us. I knew the heat was bad when even I -- the girl who loves summer the most and would do anything to keep it year-round -- began looking forward to the fall. Yes, it's true...I think I'm ready for a sweatshirt. Unless you lived here, y'all just don't know how bad it has been. (Except for maybe Luca & Adrienne down in Atlanta.) I've lived in Nashville for over 20 years, and I can honestly say it's never been this hot. Every morning I'd get to work at 8:00. I'd park in my spot and walk down to the building (which is probably the equivalent to a city block.) In the time it took me to reach the door, I'd already be sweating. And I'm not one to sweat easily. I've maybe only had one pit stain in my entire life. I swear I could feel the sun cooking my backside through my clothes. This summer made me sweat so bad that I considered bringing a change of underwear and bra...just to have dry ones when I got to my desk.

Now that the sun is coming up later, I don't have to worry about that anymore.

There was one thing that did keep us outdoors this summer -- The Pool. In the months leading up to my birthday, all I could talk about was wishing someone would buy me a pool. I love water and the calming affect it has on me. I kept thinking, "How great would it be to have a pool RIGHT in the back yard!?!?" I found this particular pool in the Sunday paper as one of the Wal-Mart summer specials. It was bright blue, and resembled an over-sized baby pool. PERFECT for us! I'd occasionally look it up online and obsess over it, talking to Sean about it until he probably couldn't stand it anymore. And being the best husband ever, he knew what he had to do. He found a great deal on the same pool at Home Depot, and he hid it in the basement until my birthday in May. (Good thing I never go down there, huh?)

The pool was fabulous. It saved us from the heat, and we enjoyed soaking up the sun on our floats and noodles. We even hosted a pool party one afternoon, and I remember thinking to myself, "Best. Summer. Ever." But the pool wasn't perfect. We soon found out that it had some major flaws. For starters, it was positioned under the trees (the only level spot in our yard). It gathered every falling limb, leaf, and bird dropping it could find. The pool was a total dirt magnet, and poor Sean was the one cleaning it out for hours every weekend. The other probelm was the filter...too small and not worth a damn. But we didn't want to spend any more money that we had to on a glorified baby pool. Lastly, because of the shade from the trees, the pool didn't get any direct sun until 3 p.m. which meant that we had to wait ALL day to use it.

After a while (and not much cleaning) the pool turned into a swamp. It was only 3 feet deep, but you coudln't see to the bottom. Plus, during the drought, we had two squirrels fall in and drowned. There's nothing like seeing a stiff, dead squirrel floating in brown pool water right outside your back door. That tail of theirs sticks straight out, and they sort of resemble a log. Sean tried his hardest to treat and skim the water, but there was no going back to the good ole days of having a clean pool. The decision was difficult, but we decided to say good-bye and we drained all the water. It was for the best, but I still think about the pool from time to time. It was a great birthday present...

So, you might be asking yourself, "What do these people do besides NOT clean pools?" Well...we do quite a bit, actually. We helped Emily load up the truck for her big move to Chicago. She and her dad shared a nice dinner with us and stayed the night before they hit the road. I've been pulling double duty at work since one of our team members left a couple of weeks ago. I've also been working out as much as I can. For those of you who don't know, my office building has a gym in the basement. A new training staff was hired to lead classes, and while I enjoy the extra motivation, I really hate the way I feel after the workouts. I've been throwing up, and my trainer thinks it has something to do with my blood sugar. She's treating me as a diabetic because she doesn't want me getting sick and passing out. I have to eat peanut butter before workouts, and also bring hard candy and Gatorade with me. I keep telling her it's just because I'm so overweight and out of shape. But...part of me worries that it's something more. It doesn't help that I discovered the lack of half moons on my fingernails. Just a little aside here as I explain...

See, Sean's cudicles are terrible, and occasionally I give him mini-manicures (which is rare because he hates them). But I somehow got to him last night as we were watching TV on the couch. As I was clipping and filing and pushing I asked, "I wonder why all your fingernails have half moons and mine don't." I told him he probably had a viatmin deficiency. I think I had heard about that somewhere before...probably from my Mimi. You will learn more about her and her love for vitamins later on, I'm sure. Anyway, I decided to look up fingernail half moons online. I absolutely love having the Internet for little moments like this. I made the grouesome discovery that it was I who had the viatmin deficiency. Yes, according to every fingernail website ever, a lack of half moons is a sign of little to no B12 in your system. Coincidentally, this leads to all sorts of health problems including anemia, which my trainer thinks I might have. JUST GREAT. So needless to say, I have plans to call the doctor to test my blood. Maybe I will get the courage to call them this week. I really do hate the doctor, but this might actually be important.

As for Sean, he's been busy adjusting to his new store in Cool Springs. He's thrilled to be there, but it's been a challenge. The store is incredibly busy, but also understaffed. Plus, he left for vacation after only being there 3 days.

Oh yes, Sean and I took a trip down to Destin to visit Kenneth for Labor Day. But, since this blog is way too long already, I will just leave you with the pictures.

Thanks for visiting the Stace Place. Much love to you all!