STAY THIRSTY, my friends

For a while now (read over six years), I have asked Rob to please grow out his facial hair. I don't know what it is about facial hair (maybe the fact that I can't grow any?) but I love it. Rob however, is not a big fan of facial hair. He feels that unshaven = unkempt, dirty, careless...on and on. I disagree. Soooo...I made Rob a deal; if he will grow out his facial hair, I will wake up each weekday morning to make his breakfast, pack his lunch and groom his beard (see what happens to your time when you quit your full-time day job?!)

The best part, and the most unexpected, is that while working on Rob's beard---trying to convince him that if groomed appropriately, his "beard" would be work-acceptable---Rob started to impersonate the Dos Equis beer guy. What followed was an hour long photo shoot of Rob, his growing beard and his impression of the Dos Equis man. Laughter and this blog entry ensued.

Enjoy and as he would say, stay thirsty, my friends.

Urban Coolness

After over a year of looking, we finally found and purchased a piece of art to go above the family room couch. It took some time for us to locate something that fit the style of the room, but the wait was definitely worth it.



The artwork is made up of tightly folded newspaper and paint canvas remnants. The colorful inner square contains the canvas pieces, with the newspaper creating an interesting border. Our new addition proves that urban coolness can be achieved using recycled materials. Going green looks great!

A Visit from Grandma Joyce

Grandma Joyce beat us to the visit punch this past Sunday! We will be going to Florida to visit Grandma Joyce and Bob in August but we were lucky enough to be able to see her before then at Bob and Linda's. We enjoyed a great BBQ with lots of Hilgart snacks and grilled meats and then finished the evening with a bunch of rounds of "Left, Right, Center" (an awesome dice game.)

Oh and we played with real money...dimes...don't laugh, it was enough to provide Rob and I with plently of wings on Monday's 10 cent wing night after softball!



Abby had to make this post as she took up most of our time that day and ended up being the main subject in all of our photos (as always.)

Sunday Morning Muffins

For a while now, Saturday mornings have been pancake mornings. This past Saturday was no different--except there was a twist. This Saturday the pancakes would have fresh blueberries! They were so delicious however, we still had blueberries left. No worries, Sunday morning turned into muffin morning. Blueberry muffin morning.




As long as the summer keeps providing us with yummy blueberries, I think Sunday morning blueberry muffins will become a tradition!

Blueberry Muffin Recipe
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cup reduced fat milk
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup granulated brown sugar or white sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and sugar. In another bowl, combine butter, egg, and milk and mix well. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and with a spatula, stir until just combined. Do not beat or over mix; it's okay if there are lumps in the batter. Gently fold the blueberries into the batter.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tray, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake for 10 minutes and remove from the oven. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the granulated brown or white sugar and return the muffins to the oven to bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before turning the muffins out.

Weekend o'Independence

Ahh...summer holidays are truly the best! I find that summer days free of work and open to any and all possibilities are rehabilitating and bring out the same feelings experienced during childhood summers off from school.

Rob and I celebrated our weekend of American independence as well as responsibility indenpendence Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We visited Bob and Linda on Friday for a lovely BBQ full of lots of food, drinks and fun dice games. Then Saturday, we woke up bright and early and rushed off to North Avenue beach for a full day of beach volleyball, picnic-ing, and dives into the icy cold waters of Lake Michigan. The weather was absolutely perfect. We could not have asked for a better beach day. Oh, and Rob was also quite the volleyball pro...playing all day long and even taking a volleyball to the face!

Later in the evening, Mania and Sophie came over for a low key BBQ at our home and we took the opportunity again, to enjoy our summer day and sit outside well into the night talking and eating. Perfection.

The rest of the weekend was spent recovering from more than our normal share of fun, sun and activity by hitting up Costco and completely blowing our anticipated budget. Oops! At least we got a meal's worth of samples out of the visit.

Weekends like these really illustrate to Rob and I how lucky we are to live in such a wonderful city and have such wonderful people to celebrate with. Now we just have to wait in anticpation for Labor Day...