All of the things I've learned...

I've learned a bunch of new stuff this weekend....First off, I learned that people eat weird things. Like honeysuckle. Now, maybe this is only weird to me, as I've never done it before, but apparently, there are people that pull the stamens out of honeysuckle through the bottom, and lick the nectar that comes out with it. Interesting! I tried it, as I'm on a "try new stuff" kick (which could last anywhere from 3 hours to 3 weeks...), and it was...different. I don't know if I'd do it again, but for a new experience, it was kind of fun. I took a bunch of pictures of this, so I could document it for you, my readers, as maybe you are one of the few people that had a very sheltered upbringing, and therefore didn't eat the flowers in your backyard either.



Which brings me to another point: I think I may be sheltering my children a bit too much. I'd like to teach them that new experiences are not terribly scary, but I don't know if I'm the best person for this. In fact, I hate to try new things. I'm terribly set in my ways, whether it's the pair of jeans that I won't get rid of because I like them, or the fact that I won't go to the post office because it's scary there. So, we're going to try some new things this summer. I'm not sure, yet, what they're all going to be, but we're going to try to be more "green" for starters. We're only trying ways that will also save us money, but we're not going to run the dryer (we're putting up a line in the back yard) and we're not running the air conditioning, for as long as humanly possible. So far, I've learned another thing this weekend: hot weather sucks. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I knew this already, but ugh... We're all hot, sweaty, and miserable. We've eaten slurpies, ice cream, and stuck our heads in the freezer. I'm hoping we'll get better at this, but so far, it's been kind of miserable. It's almost ten o'clock at night, and I still feel like I'm melting. My chocolate is melting, my ice cream is melting, even my dog is melting. People live like this all of the time. I'm not sure how they do it!!

Boris...Melting.

We were able to beat the heat for a little bit this weekend by doing something I've never been very good at. We were invited to a neighbor's house for a "Shrek/McNuggets" party (which they were picked to host through houseparty.com) and we had FUN! Not only did the neighbor's have their air conditioning on (which made for a MUCH cooler afternoon), I met new people, made a cool dessert, and had a really good time hanging out with (almost) complete strangers. I'm usually so very shy, that the fact that the entire afternoon blew by while I was having a good time is kind of new for me.... Onto the dessert that I made: I almost forgot about the party, and although I was going to make some sort of super fancy Shrek themed cupcake, I ended up making a super easy green fluff. And then I added a bit of green food coloring (to give it that "Shrek" green) and "bugs" (bug shaped fruit snacks) and gummy "worms".



So, all in all, it's been a fantastic and interesting weekend. I've learned a WHOLE bunch of things that I never knew (that I can live through an entire day of St. Louis heat), that I can have fun at a party, and that people actually EAT honeysuckles.