Where has summer gone?

I can't believe July is almost over! This month absolutely flew by - obviously helped along by our mid-month trip. Once we got back, we celebrated my birthday on the17th by going out to one of our favorite pizza places, Rizzuto's, and going to see the latest Harry Potter movie. I had a little trouble getting into it in the beginning, but by the end we were both wishing we didn't have to wait two years to see how it all ends! (Well, I know how it ends since I've read the books, but it'll be exciting to see the journey completed on-screen.) I also made my own birthday cake, choosing the Burnt Sugar Cake recipe from Marjorie Johnson's cookbook, but I didn't really go about it with the intent of blogging and I didn't take any pictures. It was tasty though! And fortunately we spent some time with our friends Bill and Amanda that weekend, playing the game I got for my bday, and they helped us eat some of it.

The following week we got together with Shaun's family and celebrated the July birthdays (Shaun's sister, mom, niece, and me). We decided last year to have joint family celebrations in June and July, since we have three birthdays plus Father's Day in June and four birthdays in July...way too many to do invididually! We lucked out with a beautiful evening and had a nice cookout, topped off with ice cream cake.

Other than that, we haven't really been up to all that much. I can blame a lot of that on the weather, as the rainy trend has continued and kept us inside more than we'd like to be. Just one more thing to grumble about, in addition to stupid drivers, which I'm always grumbling about - I swear, they get dumber and more obnoxious all the time. I'm sure I'll expand on that another time.

And I try not to talk about it on here, but I've also been grumbling about work lately. I know that in this economy I'm lucky just to have a job, and any sort of benefits, but I'm not liking the fact that I currently only get five paid vacation days per year. Shaun just started earning 24 days a year at his job! It's just frustrating to feel like I'm holding him (and friends who want to take long weekend trips, etc) back because of my lack of time, or to have to decide between going to visit my family for a few days or taking a vacation alone with my husband. Eh...that's all for now. Just needed to vent a bit.

At least in the coming months we plan to cram a lot of fun stuff into the weekends! In August my friend Lauren is coming up from Atlanta, in September we're going to Notre Dame for the first game of the season and to DC to visit John and Sarah, and in October Rich is taking us to another game at his alma mater, Penn State. We're also trying to figure out a time for my parents to come out and visit before it gets too cold. But no more talk of cold right now...hopefully we still have quite a bit of summer to enjoy!