What Day Is It?

I kid - I do know that today is Thursday - but my office was closed from 1:00 on Wednesday the 3rd until this morning and let me tell you, mid-week days off cause my brain to go all funny. Making things even more chaotic, I was off work on Monday and Tuesday because family was in town - so while I know it's Thursday, I'm also thinking "now what day is it today?"

Our house has been speeding along since we went to a walk through a few weeks ago - we got word that it looks like we will be ready to move in mid-August! I cannot believe that in just about six weeks (or five) we will be moving into our brand new home! 

It has been so fascinating to watch it rise from the ground up - it's wild to think two months ago it was just a concrete slab & now it's timbers, beams, walls & more to come! It was really wild to go see it once the sheetrock was up - because it really started to look like a house, ha-ha! 

About a week & a half ago, Ryan & I went to Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg for our Sunday service & we really enjoyed visiting! We especially enjoyed that First Watch was less than a mile down the road for breakfast since we attended the 8:15 service! We got breakfast after & then headed to the Leesburg Outlets to do a little shopping - which was great! 

The week of July Fourth was busy & filled with some fun both at home & at work! My Mom & I made some amazing Fourth of July bark to share for our celebrations & the city of Winchester even had it's blooms coordinating for the holiday! My co-worker Kristen is apparently a wizard in the garden; she brought in a zucchini that was bigger than my head... we may have had too much fun goofing off with the giant veggie! 

The City of Winchester closed all it's offices on 1:00 on July 3rd, which was awesome! I was able to head home & help get things together for our evening in Middletown to celebrate the Fourth; we had chicken, fresh fruits, some chips & white chocolate bark, while sitting on the big open park lawn in the little town of... Middletown, ha-ha! 

The town was given a grant from Thermo-Fisher Scientific to put on a fireworks show & I have to say - it was quite the show! Ahead of the fireworks, we wandered some vendors & ended up getting some ice cream (Ryan) & a snowball (me) to snack on while the sky was alight with all the colors. I must say; I've always loved Sugar Creek's ice cream & now I am a fan of their snow cones too! 

We didn't do much on the Fourth of July - we poked around, went to Wal-Mart to get some pool chairs for the summer & worked on a puzzle together; I know - very thrilling! We figured we'd really celebrated on the 3rd; although we did grill & make homemade ice cream on the Fourth in the midst of putting together our puzzle! It was a good day - & it was especially nice to have the day off! 

We popped over to see the house on Friday evening - not too much had changed (that was visible to us) but we were excited to see the cabinetry had been delivered & we also noted that a "sold" sign had been placed in the window, so that's exciting! 

Ryan's Mom and her boyfriend came to town for about thirty-six hours at the beginning of this week, so we were both off to spend a little time with them. We met up at Front Royal Brewery on Monday night to get dinner - and sat outside in spite of the heat, since Gracie the pup was joining us for our meal! In spite of the heat, the food & the company were good & I loved the mural outside the restaurant. 

On Tuesday, since we needed to do something that was outdoors but it was also quite warm out - we decided to go tubing on the Shenandoah River! The company we went through (Front Royal Outdoors) has specially made inner tubes for pups, so Gracie was able to ride the river alongside us! 

The water was a bit low - given that we haven't really had a lot of rain recently - so the trip took about 4.5 hours as opposed to the usual 3 hours. There were parts were our tubes would get stuck on rocks, but there were also places where, while I was out of the tube in the river - I couldn't reach the bottom. Eek! I definitely got a good tan & only a little bit of sunburn! 

Our final stop for the visit with Ryan's Mom was to check out the house just once more... and y'all, we had cabinetry in & I just danced around all over the place! I cannot believe how quickly everything is coming along & I cannot wait until it's done & we are moving in! I mean - maybe I am more looking forward to the moving portion being over & just living in our home! 

And that's what we've been up to over the last few weeks! House things & family & fireworks... it has been a good few weeks!