Mid-December PHFR.

Not to be confused with a PHFT, which is the sound you make when someone says something preposterous. 

{PRETTY}

Last weekend, Zeke and I went "home-" back to our teeny tiny hometown where both sets of our folks live. 

My mom threw me a surprise birthday party (not on my birthday, which was part of the surprise), complete with presents and cupcakes and streamers and my little nephew and his "Happy Birthday"-"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" mash up. 

And the next day, my mother-in-law came over, got me in the car, and took me to a salon. 

I'm not really one for salons. I get my hair cut at the Walmart once every six months or so. But she decided it was time for me to get some pampering in, so I got an actual hair cut and then got my nails done. 

I'm a terrible nailbiter and I didn't know about the manicure thing, so I didn't have any nails to get done... so I got acrylics. They're kind of weird, but I actually like them, and they make my hands look so pretty! 

{HAPPY}

Despite all the birthday festivities that were planned unbeknownst to me, the purpose of the trip was to make a ton of Christmas cookies, which we did get around to eventually.

Molasses cookie dough. So, so happy. 

{FUNNY}

Zeke's been wanting to trade in one of our couches and put a recliner in its place for a couple of months now. 

I went to a ladies' group meeting on Monday, and came home to a changed living room. 

And, because he's tall and the recliner wasn't...

Cinderblocks. 

Hunky Husband Life Hack. 

{REAL}

Zeke's been battling a bit of a sore throat lately... 

... this was the little pile he made from dumping his pockets out last night. 

Linking up today with Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

An Answer Me This without Pictures, and A Hunky Husband Life Hack

1. When's the last time you got a new bathing suit? 

Just a couple of months ago, actually! The exclamation point is because, well, I don't usually get new swimsuits.

My last suit (nicknamed by Zeke- "the appropriate suit") looks like this....

... okay, so I had a particular picture in mind, but I can't find it! You'll just have to do some imagining. It's blue.

It's got a nice skirt to it, but it's a little low cut... and I've had it for quite a few summers, so it was getting to that sorta-stretched out point... so we got me a new one! And I don't have any pictures of it, either. But it's not as low cut, still with a skirt. And I like it a lot. 

2. Who made the last incoming call on your phone?

Mah hubby. Zeke was calling to see if I'd heard from the people coming to fix one of our boat lifts at Camp. It was a thrilling and romantic call. 

3. If you receive communion, do you receive it in the hands or on the tongue?

Sort of the hands? Protestant, so we do the whole "pass the platter" thing at my current church. But I'd really prefer to receive communion from an actual person. 

4. Do you have a tattoo?

Ugh. You had to ask that one, huh, Kendra?

Yes, I do. Read here. 

5. How many dinner plates are in your house?

Too many. We have 12 from our wedding, and 10-ish from Grandma's house. And we use approximately three plates total per week in the summer. 

6. Do you have an accent?

Nope! The benefits of being Midwestern.

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and, because it's sort of like a Monday <cough, behind, cough>... 

A Hunky Husband Life Hack

All right, this one needs a little explanation. 

So, Zeke has a habit of taking things that Camp requested he get rid of, and putting them to use in our own home. Like my orange pleather couch. 

This window air conditioner is broken. The thermostat doesn't really work very well (it always shows that it's 70 degrees), and for whatever reason, it's set to not turn on until it's about 98 degrees in the room (are you singing boy-band songs in your head?), and you can't change the settings because that part is broken, too. 

Zeke found a solution. 

I came home to find that Zeke had taken the little table, doiley and all, from the bathroom, and re-situated it below the air conditioner.

Because the obvious solution was.... Put the sensor inside of the wax on the Scensy.

The wax doesn't get hot enough to damage the sensor, but stays at a pretty consistent above 98 degree temperature. So if the Scensy's on, the air conditioner is on. And, bonus, the air conditioner fan blows the lovely Scensy smell around the house! 

That guy.

Answer Me This and a Hunky Husband Life Hack

Thanks to Kendra for hosting Answer Me This! 

1. Do you have a smart phone?

No, siree, Bob. I would say that I have a dumb phone. No internet access, no camera, no games. It's a phone in the purest sense of the word.

It's actually one of those pre-paid phones, but not on a pre-paid plan. When the speaker on my old phone quit on me, I took out the SIM card from my contract phone when I realized that a new contract phone was going to run me over $100. I'm cheap, and it wasn't gonna happen. So I stuck my still-working SIM card into a much cheaper phone shell, creating a Franken-phone.

The front...

... and the back. Nothing fancy here, gals!

But!

Despite the lack of internet or games or even pretty-lookin' cover, it does have it's advantages. The battery life is amazing- it usually runs about a week and a half on one charge. Yeah. And I don't really worry too much if, say, I leave it in Zeke's golf cart overnight in a thunderstorm.

2. Which is your favorite meal of the day?

I would like to say breakfast, because, you know, most important meal of the day and all. But typically, I have coffee for breakfast (although that's changing!)...

I do really enjoy lunch, and for a couple of reasons- I don't have to cook it or clean up after it, I get to see my darling husband, my co-workers are simply lovely and nice to talk with, and getting out of my office and away from the computer is always a nice break.

Although- It's now summertime, so ignore all of the above. Except for the coffee part. Now that it's summer, we have millions of campers (yes, exaggerating) at every single meal... and so I'm back to breakfast. Because coffee.  

3. Shower or bath?

Depends. I typically shower in the morning, and I really prefer that. My husband, for all his other qualities, has one very annoying one... he values personal cleanliness above just about everything else.

Now, as far as his personal cleanliness is involved, this is a very good thing. He has a hot, sweaty, dirty, dirty job. He needs to bathe often.

The trouble is, he thinks that I need to bathe as much as he does. Which I don't feel is true. I shower in the morning, and that's enough until tomorrow morning. Zeke would prefer me to shower at night, too. We've come to an uneasy compromise- I take a quick shower in the evening sometimes... but most of the time, I take a bath instead. I get to relax, Zeke gets me clean, and sometimes he even rigs up an elaborate system of mirrors so I can watch TV from the tub. I'm a lucky lady.

4. Think of a person you love. How many days have you been in love with that person? 

2123 days. That large number somehow makes it seem... not as long?

I fell in love with him on this trip.

5. What's the best church you've ever been inside?

By far, I would have to say The Dom in Cologne.

I went to Germany with my mother when I was in high school. We stayed in Dusseldorf, but one day we made the trip, by train, to Cologne. We came up the stairs from the industrial, gray, modern train station, and BAM!

Image Source

Absolutely gorgeous. And I even walked all the way up the bell tower.

6. Happy Feast of the Visitation! Has anyone ever come to help YOU?

When we moved into Peace, I was still working full-time at a school, and moving day happened to be on a day when I couldn't get away. My mother-in-law and my mother came into town to help, which I'm sure must have been interesting. They're very friendly with one another, but are also complete opposites... so I'm not sure what all went down while I was at work, but I did come home to find oven mitts in three different places around the kitchen.

Thanks for hosting, Kendra! 

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And, since it's Monday, after all, it's time for a

Hunky Husband Life Hack
 Office Edition!
 Creative solutions, courtesy of Zeke
 

I asked Zeke if he had any extra door stops in his shop since we'd somehow lost ours in the registration office. He returned with this.