Monday, May 25, 2026

We have Memorial Day and Labor Day – our bookends for the unofficial start and end to summer. It’s hard to believe we are here already.

Let us not forget that Memorial Day does have a meaning. Our Dad joined Air Force ROTC in college and went on to become a fighter pilot with a Lt. Colonel rank in the US Air Force. He did a stint in Vietnam before I was born. Did I tell you that I read Kristin Hannah’s The Women and then read my Dad’s Vietnam journal?

Our hometown flags:

My Dad adored us and was not like a typical father (in my opinion) of that time period. He was on the floor with us playing dolls and a drawing game where we had to guess what he was drawing (pre-Pictionary!) and he had off on Mondays and was in charge of carting us to piano lessons and allergy shots (Molly).

Even though it’s old and grainy, I love this photo of my Dad and I…

Our parents are buried in the veteran’s cemetary and we chose the Methodist symbol and this quote: “the engine is the heart of an airplane but the pilot is its soul”.

Then we wanted to find a quote for my mom that also used the word “soul” and we found “art is the journey of a free soul” because my mom was a lifelong artist and art teacher.

It was a wet week around here and that carried over into the weekend. When you boat on the river, you have to pay attention to the river levels and it is high right now and too dangerous for boating even if it did stop raining. Boo! It makes me glad we got to go out last Sunday.

Let’s go back to Thursday…

Thursday afternoon I had a happy hour with my buddy Dan. It was really nice to catch up!

I came home and made spinach salmon salad. It’s a copycat from a restaurant salad that Tom likes.

With the salmon:

Friday morning and Friday during the day it literally did not stop raining for a second. It was the last day of school so it was not very summer like at all. It did make for a cozy morning with my coffee and candle.

No kiddies got to play outside before saying bye for the summer which is kind of sad. I decided to scream in their honor.

I went to the library and found some free magazines along with my book. They have a bin where you can leave a magazine and take a magazine. I love that!

I wasn’t quite finished with my last book but was anxious to get into my new book and I made myself a little rainy patio happy hour.

You know what you can’t do in the rain? Blow leaves.

I lied to Tom and told him I didn’t feel like cooking and sorry but we were having sandwiches but then he walked in and I had made one of his favorite childhood meals! I’m sneaky!

It is BBQ beef and consommé rice. I cooked the beef in the slow cooker with a homemade sauce and the rice gets baked in the oven with a can of beef consommé, water, and butter. Ewww… look at those peas!

You’ll never believe this…it rained on Saturday! This might have been a tiny respite from it.

I made myself a beautiful omelet…

Oopsie, I think I put too much salt on the plate.

I went and got a fresh pedi…

It stopped raining Saturday, but it was still cloudy. There was standing water and it was just so saturated and gross.

Remember what I said about what you can’t do in the rain? The neighbor’s ex started using the leaf blower and Tom said, “He’s blow drying the grass”. He said some other things, too, but those won’t get repeated here. By the way, we ran into the neighbor on the other side of the serial blower, and she literally imitated the sound of his blower. Ha!

Later on Tom and I took chili down to Mason’s work for him, returned Tom’s shoes from last weekend, got gas and a car wash, and got sushi for dinner at Fresh Market. Could there be a more married adult date?

At the car wash!

Then, the sun came out when we got home!

Sushi for dinner!

Eddie Otis has started really sleeping in. This is him yesterday morning when I said I was going to get up at 7. He has the funniest facial expressions.

I tried to make some egg bites with shredded hasbrowns. I made some big and some small. They were pretty good.

I think we are supposed to take the flag down in the rain?

I watched a few episodes of The Other Bennet Sister on Prime on the patio Sunday afternoon and it’s really cute.

I had a Target pick up that included a new clear umbrella – lol!

And, for dinner we had the very traditional Memorial Day weekend chili – womp womp.

I also made the Chuy’s dip!

Next Currently is Wednesday, June 3 and the prompts are enjoying, wearing, watching, listening (to), and buying. I wasn’t feeling very out of the box this month!

And, don’t forget tomorrow is Fashion Files. I know it’s weird with the holiday so if you can’t link up it’s no big deal.

Amy

34 thoughts on “Hello Monday – Memorial Day”

  1. So much good here that I don’t know where to start- screaming in the kids’ honor is perhaps my favorite, lol! You get a respite from that for the next two and half months. The leaf blower, not so much unfortunately. Your dad sounds like an amazing man. That sun must felt nice! We didn’t see the yellow orb until it was ready to set on Sunday. It rained all day Sunday and a good part of Friday and Saturday. We are water logged, too. Your food pics all look so good!

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    1. Aww, thanks! Now, don’t get too excited for me because freestyle neighborhood kids will use the playground and scream. There might also be a YMCA camp with screamers.
      He was! Thank you!
      I felt bad thinking how hot the orb was.
      I think we are going to have a rain free day today!
      I bet your garden is loving it, though – unless it’s too much!

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  2. OK-I have to ask. . . Your neighbor’s ex still lives with his ex next door or he lives separately but comes back to do the yard work? Was that part of a divorce agreement or just trying to help? I have to know!

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    1. He lives elsewhere and doesn’t have a job as far as we know – he’s here all hours of some days starting early am. Tom thinks her parents pay him to do yard work. They have been divorced almost 20 years. The woman is a life coach. You can’t make this shiz up.

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  3. This rain has been crazy but I welcomed it and was really lazy yesterday. I took two naps! Loved reading about your dad and both of the quotes including “soul” so thoughtful and meaningful. I thought about making soup yesterday since it was cool and rainy but we got carry out . Love the pedi color! Perfect for summer. The sun is trying to peek out here. We’ll see!

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    1. I feel like I would have welcomed it if I had still been teaching. Yay for two naps! Thank you. Carry out is better than soup! Lol. Thank you! It is quite a vibrant blue. We had some sun yesterday but it was short lived. I enjoyed it while it lasted.

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  4. What a lovely weekend, in spite of all the rain. We had that here as well; I was dog sitting for a friend, and if not for the rain, I could have used her pool all weekend. Mwah mwah. It’s still rainy here today and for a lot of the week, too. I’m ready for some summer sunshine! I need some color on my legs asap. You’re nice and tan, it looks like! I love your pedicure, too! I love that you made Tom’s favorite meal for him…did he enjoy it? I decided to skip a blog post today, which is so unlike me, but I was kinda busy soaking up all the weekend that I could. I’ll probably do a combo post for tomorrow. I hope you enjoy the day, my friend!

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    1. Sorry about no pool use!
      My legs are natural now- I guess I’m in my retirement rawhide phase.
      Tom loved the meal and had it for lunch the next day, too!
      I don’t know why I love a blue pedi!
      Glad you took a break and I will be anxious to read it tomorrow!

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  5. Hi Amy!
    Again, your blog is kicking a**! You have taken it and ran, I hope you are enjoying it. I had a hell of a week last week, my husband fell hurt his knee had to go to the emergency room and then the next 2 days he needs cortisone shots. And in the middle of this he lost his phone(his life) so for 2 days he called me all day from the office to get numbers look stuff up….etc. He made me nervous wreck! I’m finally calming down, Yesterday we had a cookout which I did NOT feel like doing but I did it. Today I will be laying by the pool hopefully for 8 straight hours!
    I’m still going to write about my dress up day! Soon!
    Cheers!
    Missy

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    1. You want to be my fan club president? Lol.
      I am so sorry! That is a crappy week! I bet it was like having a baby to take care of in a way.
      I would be in no mood for a cookout!
      I hope you got your day yesterday – well deserved.

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  6. Still rainy here. So much rain. And I think there’s rain in the forecast every day this week. We’re hosting a party next Sunday and I do hope it clears up as it’s a BBQ. I have things to do but this weather makes me want to be lazy. I love the quote on your dad’s headstone. Stay dry there!

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  7. We’ve had a very cold and wet Memorial day weekend too; though Saturday it didn’t start raining until dinner time so we got some yard work done…. but I don’t think it’s really stopped raining at all since. Then tomorrow it’s supposed to jump 30 degrees into the 80’s and be sunny. I can’t wait for that!

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  8. Ha! I love that you screamed in the kids’ honor. So funny! When my peeps were in school I was always excited for Memorial Day and the beginning of summer. I loved those times with them. Nowadays I work on Memorial Day for the holiday pay…no grilled items will be consumed by me today. Your hubby’s favorite dinner sounds and looks good, peas and all.

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    1. Haha! Me too! Now, I am a little sad and nostalgic, to be honest. I’m considering doing my own kiddie summer like getting myself a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut for reading 10 books.
      We had no grilled items, either.
      He loved it!

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  9. Rain, rain go away! We’ve had a lot of rain over the past week. Thank goodness it left before the wedding we attended on Sunday. That’s so interesting that you can’t go out on the boat when the river is high – I guess it moves too swiftly? Hope you like that book as much as I did.

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    1. It’s hard to turn it down in Texas, though? Everything will be so green! It does – it can create undercurrents and just be full of debris that could hurt your boat.

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  10. Happy Memorial Day! Your dad sounds like an amazing man and they are beautiful quotes on your parents headstones. Ugh! It looks like you have had a lot of rain! Aww! That did make me chuckle that you were a little sneaky with dinner. How sweet to cook Tom’s favourite. Eddie Otis’s morning face is so funny! hehehe

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  11. Happy Memorial Day! I love that you screamed for the kids who couldn’t for themselves and I loved your rainy patio happy hour, too. It looks so cozy! I also loved the sweet photos of your dad and of his and your mom’s final resting places. My parents’ and in-laws’ are all buried/interred at our national cemetery and it’s powerful to visit during this holiday weekend!

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    1. Thank you and happy Memorial Day to you, too. I am so sentimental about it.
      Wow – that is incredible! I shared a video on my IG of the national cemetery. It would be so cool to be there today.

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  12. Happy Memorial Day! I love that lobster glass! I may have to get me a couple for the Summer months. 🙂 I just got Summer State of Mind on Kindle for my first Summer read. What do you think of it? Love your dog’s face!

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  13. I would love to sit on our back porch when it rains, but it always seems to rain into our porch! My brother had a sign similar to your dad’s put up in our hometown. Dad served in the Korean War. You and your sisters (and your mom for your dad’s) picked such beautiful quotes for their headstones. I didn’t realize when rivers are high, they’re not good to boat on…though it makes perfect sense!

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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  15. The quotes you all chose for your parents’ headstones are so perfect! Wow! Nice job, they’d be so proud. Your dad sounds amazing. I cannot remember a single time my dad ever played on the floor with us.

    The neighbor and the leaf blower. He never stops.

    EO does have funny facial expressions! I can just imagine what he would be saying!

    xo,

    Kellyann

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    1. Thank you!
      My Dad was very active. He was also like that as a Grandpa – we had a trampoline and my sister had one and guess who jumped! He roller skated at one of Molly’s kids birthday parties.
      Are you all tired of hearing about the ex blower? Lol
      He really does. He is a funny boy. I like to imagine his voice.

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  16. I love your lobster glasses 🦞. Your friend Dan looks like a kind soul. It’s nice to be surrounded by lovely people.

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  17. OMG the crazy leaf blower?! Even in the rain? Ok I would be so annoyed- wish you could write what else Tom said- ha ha! Cracking up just thinking about it. It was cold and rainy here too- we made the most of it!

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