the cool down...

We've been baking....  I've never been so tuned into the weather forecasts and I'm counting hours til next Tuesday is over and the heat is supposed to not rise over 96 again for the rest of this summer.   We live on the sixth floor and our bedroom is on the seventh floor and it's HOT in our room, hot in our whole home with no AC.   This week three things fell off the walls (one string behind a picture snapped and two things stuck with putty peeled right off.)  We're all melting.  Good thing the baking chocolate is in the fridge!

I love our patio here but I've never been more grateful for it than I've been in the past two weeks of intense heat.  We can eat up here for a bit more breezy dinner and we can blow up this ole' beauty for some water joy....

Good thing there's two sections to blow up because we can't keep the top part filled with air for more than a few minutes!  Thankfully, the bottom parts stay full enough!

The water is *cold* and laying down on the hot tile is the perfect warm-up.

I sure don't need to warm up at all though.  It's hot!  Yesterday, I shouldn't have looked at the handy little thermometer on the alarm clock in our bedroom.  I was guessing it would be somewhere in the low-mid 90s but instead it was 101.4.   We're learning some tricks to deal with the heat though... like soak your pajamas in water and use a damp towel to wipe down your bed before you lay down.  With water, a fan works fairly well to keep us cool enough in this dry climate.  

This sweet girl is Marian's closest friend near us.  She told me yesterday "I love being with you" and "I haven't been this happy all summer!" (about being in our little pool.)  We're so grateful for these dear friends in our lives! 

nail polish time.
I didn't even know the word for this in Chinese but Marian was immediately on the job once her friend mentioned it!  Once again, thanks for the supply of brightness and beauty, Grandma and Grandpa!