A - Z Project, Part 2

This A - Z project with Claire was so much fun!

We laughed a lot, especially trying to come up with things to do for the "hard" letters, like Q.

Have you looked in the dictionary lately for "Q" words? Quadruple, quadrangle, qualify, quantify, quarantine, quintuplet...any of those words would've been a stretch for us to figure out what to do with them!

So in the end we went for this:

Q - QUOTE

I don't know when I started saying it, but a few years ago we realized that there are two things I say (or quote) a lot: "Might as well" and "Why not?"

One summer evening after going over to a friends house to take care of some things for them while they were on vacation, and having not had dinner yet, we opted to drive into Frydek Mistek and just hit McD's for dinner at 8 PM.

"Why not?" I said with a smile, as Claire grinned back at me!

Their special green tea and a latte rounded out the unusual, for us, choice for dinner that warm summer night.

R - ROAD CONSTRUCTION

There are a few things that persisted throughout the A - Z project, solidifying the memory of  Summer 2012 for Claire and I. One of the most distinct was the road construction project nearby.

By the time we came home from the States in early July, the road that we normally travel into town on was closed. This meant a long detour around the rest of the summer, every single time we wanted to go somewhere.

The road is back open now, though the new bridge is not finished yet so it's still a lot of road construction to put up with!

Someday this will all look lovely again. But we'll remember living through it as it was this summer.

S - SALE

There were a lot of "S" possibilities...the sunrises, the sunsets, the storms. But there was one other thing that stood out that was especially happy for me.

Maybe you know the French store "L'Occitane". It's one of my favorite stores to just pop into and smell the various skin care products and perfumes. I always feel like I'm going on a mini vacation to France when I'm in there.

At Christmas a friend gave me a gift from there, along with a sample of one of their products for...ahem...well, for women of my age who need a little help in the wrinkle department. I used it for two days and could see why it's one of their best selling products. However, the price tag on it kept me from buying it, though not from thinking about it!

A week before my birthday in August, I got an email from L'Occitane (I'd signed up for their customer card some months ago, thus get periodic emails from them). I was about it delete it, then thought better of it (good thing) and opened it.

It was a birthday gift for 50% off ANY ITEM in their store!! Guess I must've had to give them my birthday when I signed up for the card. Awesome!

You can guess what I went in to buy.

Who doesn't love "S" for sale?!!

T  is for TREATS or TASTE TESTER!!

Claire did a lot of baking this summer, trying out new gluten free recipes often.

I was her taste tester. No problems with that!

This mini blueberry pie was absolutely amazing!! She made it not just once, but twice!

U - UMBRELLA

While we did have some sunny summer days, we also had our fill of the usual rainy, cool weather that comes with living in the mountains.

Claire made the best of it one afternoon...just took the umbrella out and danced in the rain. TOO CUTE!