Happy Birthday, Broder!

This is my brother. And me. This is me and my brother. This is a picture of me and my brother.

He's pretty awesome. He cooks food for me when I visit him. We joke about Homestar Runner. We have a similar sense of humor (kind of a scary thought). We watch Mystery Science Theater 3000. We have good times. Anyway, today is his birthday. He's basically an old man. It's okay. I love him anyway.

(Aren't you glad you left this on my phone?)

Happy barfday, broder! I hope it's spectacular. And you're lucky I lost all of those pictures I took of you at your church fellowship (when you told me you wanted a blog post about yourself? Remember?). 

Love,

Scout

Eating Crabs and Squeamishness

I can be pret-ty squeamish. For example, I cannot eat shrimp when the legs are attached. I mean, of course no one eats the legs, but I can't bring myself to pull them off. It completely freaks me out, so if I have to pull the legs off, I won't eat any shrimp - even though I love it. I will eat it if I can get someone to pull the legs off for me, but that's kind of high maintenance, so I try to avoid that.

Anyway. I get really squeamish sometimes, but eating crabs has never bothered me. Which is great, because every summer, for as long as I can remember, my grandparents have gotten crabs. Even though we actually eat them fairly often, it always feels like a treat. I love crabs, and it's great time with my grandparents.

What are y'all's favorite summer traditions/memories?

Love,
Scout

A Time For Peace

Hey, y'all. Things around here have been so crazy lately. For about a month, we had a constant flow of people going through our house - church friends and neighbors coming over to swim, the whole extended family staying for the holiday, my brother and his wife making their summer visit, and my brother's friends coming over to visit him. Now, my house is not very big. It's your standard three bedroom house. We counted how many people were here on the most crowded day and got at least 50 people at my house all at once!
On Monday, the last of our company left, so I've been spending this week recuperating. I've been reading, crocheting, cooking, watching reruns of just about anything (hello, NCIS and Frasier!), sleeping in, and enjoying the peace and quiet. Don't get me wrong - I love people. However, people exhaust me, so right now I'm glad for the break.

What do y'all do to relax?

Love,
Scout

Snapshots

Ceramic knives are strong.

On repeat all week.

I love her books so much.

Sweet Frog.

Cheesy Family Portraits.

My sister.

Motocross.

I bought my first food processor!

Berry picking.

Love,

Scout

Totes The Best Hun-Cal Froyo

My brother and his wife are visiting! We spent the first week of July with my whole paternal extended family - which was crazy and awesome. This week it's just the immediate family spending time together and hanging out - shopping, eating, waching Eureka, and laughing. Today we went to Sweet Frog for frozen yogurt. I've never had frozen yogurt before (I was told that frozen Go-Gurts didn't count), and it was so good! It was definitely a great evening out.

If you don't get the title of this post, please take a moment to watch this video.

Love,
Scout

My Crazy Family

This is just a small taste of what my house looked like last week.

Love,
Scout

Tea With My Mom

For Christmas 2011, I gave my mom a coupon type deal to go out for tea with me. Five months later, we finally went. We went to a place called TranquilaTea in Waynseboro, PA. It was so cute! Everything was super girly. They had pretty tea cups all around, and vintage hats on the walls if you wanted to play dress up. They had a huge selection of teas, and the food was all homemade and delicious. (I went to a tea house before that was buffet style with bags of tea and cookies you can buy at Walmart. It was less than exciting).

Anyway, TranquilaTea was very charming, and if you live in the area, you should definitely check it out.

Love,
Scout

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

And, finally, my absolute favorite photograph of the week.

Love,
Scout

News Flash

My computer is giving me a hard time again. This time the mouse won't work. Anyway, I have a bunch of posts planned already, so it shouldn't be a problem. Why do I have a bunch of posts planned already? Because I'm going to Tennessee, y'all! You might not know this, but I went to school in TN. I had to drop out, though, because I couldn't afford it. I haven't seen anyone there in almost a year, but we are going down this week! I can't wait to visit. So, even though my computer is being a jerk and I'll be out of town, there should still be plenty for you to read :)

Also, you should check out this song. It's my cousin. I have a talented family.

Love,

Scout

Family Photos

Different family members of mine have had out old photographs, so I decided to scan some and share them with you. 

1. New Year's dinner, 1973 2. My mom's birthday, 1968

 3. My grandma, Christmas 1972 4. My uncle and mom on my mom's birthday in 1973. 

My dad's family, minus two older brothers. My dad is behind the blue shirt boy. 

My father. The middle one is from 1982. 

My mommy, 1980.

1983. I love this one.

My parents and my mom's mom. 

My parents' wedding. 

The children. 

My brother. Of course, I picked out the more entertaining photos. 

Me. 

I'm not sure if I had a drinking problem or my neighbor just hadn't introduced me to coffee yet (which she apparently did when I was a baby). 

Me and Pop Pop. I think this one is pretty fantastic, too. 

1. American Girl doll  2. Who knows.  3. Dancing in the rain...something I will never grow out of. 

 Case in point: 

Sister.

Best picture ever. 

Miscellaneous family. 

In Canada on my tenth birthday. We were there with our fife & drum corps for a reenactment of some battle or war or something. I was too little to care. Actually...I just find that kind of thing boring. 

1. A news crew on the reenactment scene. I was on television - for three seconds when they asked how old I was. 2. Practicing our performance in the motel parking lot. Four points each if you can spot my brother and dad. 

Man, I am soooo cool. I think the trophy is from baton twirling. And Sister's hair looks pretty awesome, don't you think? 

"But don't worry, it's nothing embarrassing. Not anything like baton twirling or anything." - Miss Congeniality

My many talents. Rocking hat trends, baton twirling, and fife-ing. 

PS. I used-ta-could fife all these but the last two. 

One of three cousins named Josh. 

Okay, fine, I'm done. Promise.

Love,

Scout