Ticks, The Chicks & Chile Chicken Burgers (aka I'm not good at titles)

Y'all, I can't believe I sat down to start this post on Monday and now it's already Wednesday. When I started this post we'd only played one of our All Star games and now we've had two. Also, I don't know if you're aware, but July starts this week. WHAAAATTT? It's like we're The Jetsons or something.

We had a pretty much perfect summer weekend around here. We did all the summer things including a few baseball games, an outdoor concert, some pool time, a family cookout and a trip to one of our favorite summer destinations, the local Urgent Care.

Let's just say that there was a tick taken off of one of my people last Sunday and then there was a bulls-eye-ish type of thing around that bite on Friday afternoon. The tick situation in our new house is a little bit panic inducing. We have deer that show up right outside our windows and a thick forest of trees right behind our house, but along with all of God's glorious creation there are lots of God's glorious bugs. Because of that and the fact that I had just by coincidence happened on  THIS BLOG which is offering a four part series on preparing your family for tick season and preventing Lyme Disease, I handled that red ring with a very calm, measured reaction kinda like this:

I'm kidding, kinda. I did however hop on the internet to re-read some of that blog (I highly recommend it, by the way) and quickly called to find out how late we could get into an Urgent Care on a Friday night because you know, there was baseball practice first and ain't nobody missing baseball practice for Lyme Disease or The Plague or anything else. What was weird was that the ring was gone when we got there a few hours later. We swore up and down that there was most definitely a bull-eye type red ring thingy only hours before, but the doctor looked at us like we were a tiny bit bananas and was a little wishy-washy on writing the prescription for antibiotics. Due to my Internet Medical Degree, I was *this* close to going full on Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment on her.

GIVE HIM THE DOXYCYCLINE NOW!

Um. She gave us the prescription. so when I walked out of there, I was more like this:

On Saturday we kicked off the AllStar season with the first game for Drew's team. Our guys won so it was very exciting. Later we had some friends over for a couple (or what seemed like ten) hours of pool time. The pool at our new home wasn't something that we were really looking for when we were looking to move, but it was here, so I'm trying to learn all about skimmers and brushes and nets and how not to lose my mind when I see a frog or two floating around. Also, you might imagine that having a pool would be very relaxing and I think that will be the case when the boys are away at camp this summer. Until then, this is about how relaxing it can be:

"Hey, Mom. Hey, Mom. Hey, MMMMOOOOMMM! Watch this. Watch this. Judge me on this. Time me on this. 1-10. How much? How long? Watch this. Watch this. Wait. I wasn't ready. Watch this. Wait. When I go under. Wait when my hand touches. Wait. When I say go."

Some day I will read a book by the pool. Some day. Until then, there's a whole lot of this going on:

Saturday night The Lovely and Talented Mrs. C. and I went to see the Dixie Chicks at an outdoor concert venue and we had the BEST time. Those Chicks are so talented and I had forgotten how many great songs they had released and was really surprised at how all those lyrics just came back to me so easily. I got a little misty eyed at Landslide as I always do and we danced like maniacs to Goodbye Earl.  They performed two perfect covers - one of Sinead O' Connor's Nothing Compares 2 U in honor of Prince and one of Beyonce's Daddy Lessons. It really was an amazing show. The Lovely and Talented Mrs. C. and I tried to take a photo, but taking selfies is not in either of our skill sets. Luckily, we figured this selfie was perfect since it continues to keep the identity of Mrs. C. a bit of a mystery. We've decided that Mrs. C. is to The View From Behind Home Plate what Wilson, the neighbor obscured by fences and bushes, was to Home Improvement in the 90s.

On Sunday we had a family cookout with most of Steve's side of the family and it was a perfect way to end the weekend. We hung out by the pool and made sure we had all of the four basic summer food groups represented including chips, guacamole, salsa and more chips. I also highly recommend the Chile Lime Chicken Burgers from Trader Joe's at your next cookout. Put some of the guacamole on that burger and you will be the Champion of Summer.

Lastly, I'm wondering if anyone has any podcasts that they listen to regularly. After I had something taken off of my arm by my dermatologist, she told me I couldn't run for two weeks until the two measly stitches were taken out. This seemed really ridiculous, but I only have an Internet Medical Degree and she seemed to have one from a real live institution, so I've just walked for exercise lately. I've been listening to the The Big Boo Cast which is just two of my favorite bloggers talking about everything from books to beauty products to food to Jesus and it is delightful and also so funny that I laugh so hard I can barely walk. I also listened to an episode on God Centered Mom yesterday. I'm thinking podcasts are the answer to road trips this summer as well. If you have any favorites, please leave a comment. 

Have a great week, Friends!