All I want right now...

...is lemonade.

Seriously. 

When the weather gets toasty (or above 60 degrees with the case of Seattle), I crave this citrus-y delight. It's so refreshing, and always quenches my thirst. At the amazingly beautiful 4th of July party I attended, they were serving an amazing mint lemonade, and I've been slightly addicted ever since. I found this recipe at marthastewart.com and have been meaning to try it out. Perhaps I will today. But I wanted to share it just in case you wanted to try it out too.

Mint Lemonade Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar

4 1/2 cups water

3 1/3 cups fresh lemon juice (about 8 lemons)

1/4 cup julienned mint, plus leaves for garnish (this is Martha Stewart after all)

Directions

1. Combine sugar and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat. Let stand until completely cool. 

2. In a 2 1/2-quart pitcher, stir remaining 4 cups water, the syrup, lemon juice and mint. Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

I guess you could use lemonade from concentrate and add the mint. In any case, it was delicious!

Do you have any favorite lemonade flavors or recipes?

The Haps

So much for keeping up on my blog. And there have been some pretty awesome things of late. I have to say that I love living in the Seattle area. It suits me. Yesterday, I was out golfing with my mom and grandpa and it was absolutely gorgeous! And hot. I love breathing in the clean, sweet, woodsy air--it reminds me of my childhood summers of picking blackberries and huckleberries. And you better believe I'll be all over that this summer, if it ever gets warm enough for the berries to ripen.

 For some inexplicable reason, Washington State is not experiencing the horrors of the Midwest and East Coast. For that I am grateful. If I were in DC at the moment, you better believe I'd be a wilted with absolutely no energy. Me + humidity = death. It's amazing that I was able to live and function and actually do anything active (running and biking) in Taiwan. I think I was blessed for that space of time. 

Still nothing much on the job front, but I hope I find something soon! But I manage to keep myself busy. I have a couple of friends that introduced me to a sorta ghetto karaoke bar in Bellevue, and not it's a weekly event. I look forward to my Thursday nights. It's funny. The bar tenders and the DJ know us as the group that doesn't drink, which is cool. Everyone is so friendly there. This past Thursday we had 7 of us there. If you've never done karaoke, you definitely need to. It's such an adrenaline rush! I think my favorite performance of the night was Matthew singing "Soul Meets Body." He definitely worked that stage! 

It's also been super fun to connect with one of my college buddies! 

Sarah and I have know each other since living on the same floor in Taylor Hall our freshman year at BYU. It's been awesome hanging out with her. The picture above was taken after a fun filled Fourth of July on Bainbridge Island. I bit worn out, but very enthused for the ferry ride home. And yes, she's wearing a Tron jacket. 

That's about it for now. Here's to life!

What you know

Happy weekend! It's hard to believe that another weekend is already here. Not that I'm complaining. My Fourth of July was fabulous. I'll write more on that later.

It's been a week full of  friends and introductions to new music--or I should say, new to me music. I've known Two Door Cinema Club, but haven't listened to them on a regular basis. It's the recent favorite band of a good friend of mine (and ironically enough, he looks like the lead singer), and this song has been stuck in my head all week. Good thing it's a good one!

Please enjoy!