surprise!!!!!

 This afternoon, I got a huge-0 surprise!  A gift!  I cannot post pictures right now, again, because my computer is acting up, again....so my words will have to do the trick.

Jon backed his big old truck into the driveway after work this afternoon, and started unloading...a new pellet smoker/grill!  What?  I went out to ask what he was doing, where he got it, he hushed me and said to go back into the house...oh no, I was too excited!  Turns out he bought it for me!   (Hooray for marketplace!)

I just so happened to have a one and a half pound steak, all seasoned and coming to room temp, on the counter (and a pan of salt potatoes on the stove).  (It was only Jon, Char, Cam, and I, and Cam was eating the Costco chicken).   He plugged it in, fired it up, and we put the steak on...oh dear, it was good.  It's a whole new learning curve, it's a Pit Boss, a bit different than the Masterbuilt smoker (the one that died on us).   

I'm excited to experiment with it, and get to know it.   New appliances are always scary at first, ha.

We had adventures today.  Kathryn had to stop to get some paperwork filled out today, so I went along so she wouldn't have to bring the kids all in with her.  Then, we went to the playground with the splash pad.  The splash pad was wonderful, being 90 degrees and humid.  The playground:  ugh.  Way too hot and muggy, sunny and lovely, but ugh.  

We spent an hour there, then were headed to Aldi quick, but...somehow hit a curb while driving in the city, and the tire went flat.  It was too hot out to get out and take the kids for a walk or anything, so we waited in the car for Darius to get there, Darius and Jonathan.  Darius drove my car, we switched the car seats into it, and headed to Aldi, they changed to the spare.  

We drove through an immensely scary storm, the wind was blowing sideways and it was pouring out, thundering and lightning, then the tornado warning came in on our phones.  We made it home, brought the kids into the house, managing to get pretty soaked.  The storm blew on by, then she went home with the kids.  

Sonja was going to bring her dress in to be altered, so I went with her.  She's having it hemmed, and a few other touch ups.  We were out and about, so decided to go to Marshall's Home Goods...neither of us found anything that even slightly interested us...except for some monk fruit sweetener with alluose, for baking. (I have it in my head to make a keto-ish lemon poundcake...)

Home....ahh, home.  It's always nice to get home.  

I'm headed to bed, stayed up too late last night and swim class starts at 8:30 for the month of July.  Goodnight!!!