July Report

The title of this post should be:
An Optimist's Ever Hopeful Recording of Her Actual Life Hoping That It Will Read Like the Life She Wishes It Were Instead of What It Really Is

Perhaps that is a little more negative than I actually feel. Here is how my actual life is:

I don't want to list it all, so I'll just say it.

1. (Okay, I do love lists.) I didn't do great on any of my first things first things this month. In fact I sort of took the month off. I've eaten what I want to eat, failed to exercise these last two weeks, and did so-so on remembering to read my scriptures and say my prayers.
What I did do: rest and relax and sleep in whenever I could.
Evaluation: July felt great. I need to do this every once in a while. I will kick it in again in August.

2. Family History (my new name for this category): Fabulous! Orva and I finished scanning Ray's parent's slides. We did over 7000 scans in the last three months (hence the break the last two weeks - I needed the R&R). One very small negative note: we found some more slides that will need to be done. But we are not in a rush to finish them.

3. Projects? What projects? Everything has given way to the scanning. I haven't kept up on the yard, or house. see #1. for what I did do.
Next month, or September: paint my bedroom! perhaps a little cleaning here or there also. Perhaps. Depends on how well I kick it in, so to speak.

That's as much as I feel like reporting. It's July. I've taken a break. July isn't over, so I'm still taking a break.

Now I need to go hunt down some serious chocolate.

July 2014 ~ Lake Cavanaugh

We just had the best week of our lives. All of our children and their families with us for a week on beautiful Lake Cavanaugh in Washington State. No cell phone service, no internet. Completely unplugged and nothing but fun.

We rented a house for the week. It used to be our house--we sold it in 2002. My daughter saw it for rent on VRBO and we jumped right on it. Of course we chose the week with the 4th of July because you've never seen more fun fireworks than on Lake Cavanaugh. Many people around the lake set fireworks off on the end of their docks. Surrounding you are fireworks lighting the night sky.  Our thanks this year especially to the house down the lake who must have spent thousands of dollars on fireworks. What a show!

Lake Cavanaugh is a little over an hour from Seattle. It is a small lake, about 4 miles long and maybe a mile wide at the widest. There is a public boat launch, but no other public places to moor a boat, or camp. Boats on the lake are almost all owned by homeowners there. So there are few boats around, and it is quiet and serene.

We loved the lakehouse when we owned it, and to tell the truth, we all cried when we sold it. It's a little scary to go back to a place you love so much--can it ever be as good? Yes, yes it can. This time we had the added joy of introducing all of our children's spouses and our grandchildren to the magic of being together as a family on Lake Cavanaugh. We relived all of our great memories of family and friends being there with us in the past and created so many new memories with our own family.

It couldn't have been better.

Here are a million (or so) pictures, in no particular order: