Beat the Heat

The heat this summer hasn't been to unbearable except the whole 100% humidity everyday. The humidity in Georgia is unbearable. You walk outside and it is pretty much instant sweat. Ick. Our AC decided to crash on us at home and at work which made me start thinking about ways to beat the heat. 

Sweet Tea 

I think the reason sweet tea is like fine wine down here in the south is that it is the perfect beat the heat drink.  It is sweet and cool and perfect. I drink mine from a chilled mason jar, and yes I did this BEFORE Pinterest said it was cool. 

Pool and lake time! 

This is a given. Here in Georgia we have a few awesome lakes. I have my favorite up in the mountains that I run too when the heat gets brutal. It is also imperative that you know someone with a pool to make it through the summers here. If your pool buddy is missing and you don't feel like hooking up the boat or SeaDoos, I recommend hiking to one of the water falls (we have a billion here) or heading to the many rivers or creeks around here. Devil'e Elbow is the local hot spot around here. 

Washing the car

You get two things taken care of in one swoop here. Friday night we washed one of the big tow trucks together as a company. It was the hottest day of the year and we needed to cool down. Plus, the truck had a car show to attend. Between soaping up the truck there was a lot of spraying each other with hoses and pretending we hated it. It felt amazing. That 106 heat index with 97% humidity was no joke. 

Homemade Ice Cream

We hit the triple digits again on Saturday but the event we were at had homemade ice cream. There is nothing in this world like homemade ice cream. Why is that? I have no idea but I had 2 cups of it and no, I don't feel even a morsel of regret. It was cold and sweet and I would love some right now... at 9am... this is why I will never be a size 2. 

Those are just a few ways I beat the heat down in here in the dirty muggy south. How do you handle the summer heat? 

Dear week, 

You have been awful. Sorry, but why you gotta by such a bish? I am just glad your party-lovin' cousin the weekend is here. Honestly, I am not partying at all. I am unpacking the house. Joy of all joys. 

Dear Jelly Belly, 

I am addicted to your Extreme Sport Beans. Energy drink in Jelly Bean form? Ah- Mazing. I can clean the whole house in like an hour on these things. I am a little ridiculous on these things. The office is threatening an intervention. 

Hello, my name is Mallory and I have a problem. 

Dear hubs, 

I love you. Even after this week. Sometimes you are a negative Nancy though and I want to punch you. 

Dear dogs, 

I love that you love your new place! Riley, you seem to enjoy this off leash freedom. Lacey, you are loving the fact that you are in "your" space. You were a puppy last time we lived here. 

Dear house, 

Be prepared for house bootcamp. I am whipping you into shape this weekend. Prepare to be organized. Just don't whip back because my old lady hip is killing me. 

Fun fact: I have an old lady hip because Casper decided to buck me to the moon. The landings get harder as you get older. Imagine that. When I get 90 I am screwed.

Dear Momma and Daddy, 

I am jealous of your new house. It should be on Cribs or in a magazine or a movie. 

Gorgeous. 

I will be invading your house frequently. 

Water = insant grace.. NOT!

      I am not a graceful human being. At all. I think its because I have huge boobs and never participated in typical hand/eye coordination sports. I started an equestrian- tried gymnastics (fail. they expect you to be balanced and poised. HA)- and today I am still an equestrian. The horse makes me seem graceful, and that makes me love them that much more. But I thought everyone was graceful in water. Am I mistaken? We are supposed to float about and appear graceful, right? Well apparently not me.
      You see we have some new Yankee friends, straight from New York. I thought we would show them a Georgia summer the right way. You know, Lakes, pontoons, tubing down the 'Hooch and all that jazz. Well Mr. Yankee ( we call him no- pants- Lance, Lance for short) hates water. He is very cat-like. Ms. Yankee, however, is like me... part fish. She is much more graceful than me. She can dive off the boat, I pretty much belly flop or fall into the water. Anyways, we forced Lance into a lake day. He actually enjoyed it and even jumped in! Although mid jump he kinda panicked and grabbed for the boat, slicing his finger open on the ladder in the process. He survived though!
      Ms. Yankee and I decided since our first lake outing was so successful, we would plan another water filled outing. This time, we would go tubing. The morning of our adventure Ms. Yankee text me to say that we are not going because Lance decided to work on the basement. I talked her into going without him and then promptly texted him and told him we absolutely needed him for this group outing. My hubs (we call him the nerd because he researches everything!!!) had this all figured out and he was going! I even told him Nerd was going to cry, in the end Ms. Yankee told to the old faithful trick and turned on the water works. Lance had to go at that point.
     We drove the hour and a half to Helen and rented our tubes. We loaded the bus with about a hundred other people and away we went. When we got to the drop off point there was a huge debate over whether to get a tube with a hole or without. We all chose without, except Lance. I think he was still nervous. We go to get into the tubes and wouldnt you know, everyone else gets in no problem. I fall in flat on my ass and my tube goes floating away. I catch it, get back in and we start our leisure float down the river.
Well we quickly decide we should have got those nifty little straps that would hold us all together. The four of us grabbing one another's hands, tubes and ankles just didn't work. We eventually just drifted apart. The river was so low Nerd spent a lot of his time stuck and walking with one guy while I floated with his wife. I got stuck with a group of really fun drunks and then some not so fun drunks. I found two snakes, one poisonous, one that was not... Thank God I didn't bite. Towards the end we finally got all connected, thanks to ms. Yankee, who got some straps. We were then able to help one another off rocks and we had a blast. Next time we will take sticks and straps to make navigating easier. Lance even said he was up for white water rafting next... I don't know if he ever will though.