…but I’m doing it. All of these boxes (shipping boxes AND random ones that would make great shipping boxes) that I’ve hoarded are being flattened and going to recycling. Please tell me I’m not the only one who hoards boxes.
This meme sums it up perfectly:
We have been trying to think of a name for our bar since we moved in. (Granted we hadn’t given it that much thought, but we would throw out random names.) Nothing was right.
The previous owners called it the Long Bar—I thought it was because it was a long bar…but it was their last name (LOL). Doh!
So I posted on Facebook and TiVo and got some good suggestions!
Hudson Bar
Time Flies
The Dirty Secret
The Dirty Habit
The Dirty Major
H³ Bar – Hudson Happy Hour
Major Bar
Barry McBarface
Bartholomew Drunkins
Hold My Beer
Pub Club
Ground Control
Major Tom’s
Major Tom’s Retreat
The UMF
Peep Bar
The Jolly Major
Oohrah Inn/Bar
Semper Fi Saloon
Major Intoxication
Major T’s
FU Bar
At Ease
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
AND THE WINNER IS…
Ground Control! Yes, lots of Ground Control to Major Tom references were made and suggested and Tom liked that one the best (and the bar is going to be his “me room” with all of his military memorabilia).
Gramma and Grandpa were headed to Gabby’s graduation party on Moccasin Lake in the U.P. (near Munising) so it was a perfect time to make the transfer. They got to spend the day with their cousins and had a great time!
Owen’s first raft ride behind a Jet Ski!
Waiting patiently.
First time in a hotel with them. We were tired enough, we all slept!They stopped at the deer farm in the U.P. near Brevort.
The kids had such a great time Gramma and Grandpa took them back again!
Don’t get excited thinking I’m showing too much… this is not the final look. This is just one picture of many different options she tried.
To be honest as she was doing it I was liking it, but /skipping a lot of design and redesign/ it ended up waaaaaay too flowery and poofy so I asked her to redo it. Those pics will come later!
I really wasn’t planning on cleaning Katie’s room (even though I desperately wanted to throw every single thing away because she’s really ungrateful). But it happened. I just could not stand this disaster any more. (And moreso because she swears she’s cleaned it and it’s always still a pit.)
We both worked in there for hours. We did all the laundry (at least 4-5 loads—which she had assured us all her laundry was done), picked up all the toys and crap, tossed all the garbage, organized things, and created two boxes of crap for her to go through and sort. If she doesn’t want to, it’s going straight into the garbage. This is her LAST chance. If she can’t keep it remotely picked up, she’s losing things. I hope she’s having fun at grandparent camp because life is changing when she gets home. I told Tom if he ever wanted to be a drill sergeant, now is going to be the time.
And when we moved the nightstand…
Sidenote: I did run across these. Cue ugly cry.
But lest you think we’re just picking on Katie…Owen’s room is getting cleaned out, too. I didn’t move from my initial position (between his desk and the bed) for almost two hours—there was so much crap shoved and crammed in/on/around/behind/under his desk/bed/drawers I wanted to scream. I mean I was duly impressed…but I wanted to scream.
Swim shirt and bathing suit he couldn’t find for weeks? Under the bed. A pack of winter thermal shirts? Desk drawer. Missing laundry bags? Under his bed. All the school notebooks I’d asked him to find that he claimed were gone? Everywhere. Dirty clothes? Everywhere. Candy wrappers? Everywhere.
And of course Katie notes!
I took out two bags of garbage, a bag of recycling, and did four loads of dirty laundry (when he said it was all done) including about six bath towels and 83 socks. I picked up approximately 712 Lego pieces, 128 Pokémon cards, 300 random playing cards and other assorted game pieces, a shoebox of markers/pens/pencils, and about 13 spiral school notebooks that have 2% schoolwork and 98% drawings in them. I steam cleaned the carpet and half-heartedly dusted. Oh, and Tom put up a new ceiling fan!
Life will sure be different for him post-grandparent camp as well.
I realize most of this is par for the course for kids and kids their age but I just. couldn’t. any. longer. I don’t mind a little mess or being unorganized. But both rooms were flat out disgusting.
Stay tuned.
So Owen is still sometimes afraid of…weather. He doesn’t like wind or storms. So Gramma and Grandpa had a funeral to go to (that the kids didn’t need to go to) so I said it was fine to let them stay home alone. But Owen was VERY concerned because it was supposed to be stormy.
7/24 – Owen is watching the weather like a hawk. They both are afraid of thunderstorms and lightening. He especially is watching Tuesday for the funeral and is afraid of being alone if it storms. It is predicted to storm of course. I won’t leave them here alone if it is going to storm. We’ll watch the weather closely and if it storms we’ll make sure he is safe and not leave him alone. We’ll figure it out. Best case scenario is that the weather changes by then and it won’t storm! I told him that too, it’ll probably change by Tuesday. He seemed relieved and took it all in. He told me about the incident at Mike’s when he couldn’t reach you and it started raining and he was scared.
7/27 – The weather forecast changed so we did not get a single drop of rain. Kids did well. Katie wasn’t hungry so I guess she didn’t eat. I got her to admit she has one candy. But before we went, Owen was a champ. He said he’d be okay with it even if it rained or stormed. He said I have to learn to deal with it (or similar words). I asked if his counselor taught him some coping mechanisms and he said yes, and it helps/helped. I texted him once we got to the luncheon and they were fine. I know he played on his phone but he promised to share and he did. They did go outside for a short while and they watched TV. So, I think it was a huge stepping stone for him. Yay Owen!
Katie got a birthday check from Gramma but she wanted to spend it in person…
From Gramma Jean: We went to Dollar Tree tonight before dinner and she wanted a basket to shop! Got two pair of flip flops and some other stuff, spent $12. I told her I would give her the balance so she had to get pencil and paper and figure out how much that would be. I said she could take the rest to granny’s and she said, not to be mean but shopping there is worse than here! (Choices of stores & options) I’ll give her the balance in an envelope. She’s funny. I pretty much let her choose what she was going to buy. She carefully thought about each one. Cute.
This just in from Grandparent Camp—two of those little dots out there are our kids! They really only get to swim in a lake up north—they are pool babies—so this is a special treat. Katie is freaked out by fish in the water potentially touching her but Gramma Jean says she’s in up to her neck so this is a big deal!
Gramma said later that they were out there for HOURS. Yep, those are my kids!
We absolutely love our bar and it’s totally amazing…but it was missing a few things.
We really wanted footrests—so dad and Linda offered to pay for them as a housewarming gift! Tom installed them today and they are perfection!
And I’ve always wanted a slot machine and long story short we looked at a few (and I adjusted my expectations) and we decided on this one (it’s not crazy noisy)! The kids are going to go crazy! (That isn’t quite the final resting place—Tom will build something.)
More things are coming, too!! I can’t wait!
From Gramma Jean: Owen and Katie wanted to go see the start of the race so the three of us went to DQ and then parked at my old office and walked down to Joe’s to watch them. It was fun and they enjoyed it.
You can leave at the drop of a hat for dinner out with old friends and new friends an hour away to celebrate National Tequila Day! We drove to Aurora to meet at El Jefe.
Anna and Jami were meeting for the first time but they said it was like they already knew each other! (They met just by posting in my Facebook business group and then friended each other.)
The Al Pastor tacos (me) and octopus (Tom) were both delicious. We also loved the guac trio, the oysters, the flaming cheese, and the margaritas!
The only bad thing was that the music was SO STINKING LOUD that we couldn’t even hear anyone at the ttable—so we really only got to talk to the people directly next to us.
David recently got a new truck and the boys are just totally geeking out over it. It has totally refreshed Tom’s want of a truck and he’s been researching so when he’s ready, he’ll know what he wants.
Well we were out today and drove by a dealership so I made him stop. And I had to take a picture of me next to the bed to show just how ridiculous the size of this thing is.
This thing is so high it has running boards that pop down when you unlock it—except the battery was dead so it didn’t work so I had to practically pole vault to get in. Still being in recovery I probably shouldn’t even have tried but I thought I could do it easy.
Ha ha. Ha ha ha. What a joke. I barely pulled myself up and crashed into the seat. I just can’t imagine having a vehicle that high and hard to get into (I know it would have running boards but still—yikes). So time will tell.
Today is my follow up #pissygallbladder appointment to get my staples removed. I’m wondering if the doctor will even recognize me. If only I had my CCTM in the hospital I would have looked MUCH different.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when removing the staples but I honestly wasn’t expecting him to just pull them straight out! It didn’t hurt and it makes sense that’s how they do it but it was just weird.
I asked about the sizes of the gallbladder and stones because they were supposed to give me pics and never did. First he said the big one was the size of a marble but then he said the size of a small egg. And the other ones (which were hundreds?) were the size of small peas. I’m not sure he knows/remembers/cares but regardless, that’s a ton.
It’s time for a road trip to take the kids to Michigan for Grandparent Camp! Usually we go all the way to Grayling but we decided to try something different this year and meet halfway!
I’m not sure what Katie is pissy about other than that’s her normal look these days. (I told you!)
One of the few times she’s sweet.
Our meeting point was Bilbo’s, one of our favorite restaurants from East Lansing that we hadn’t been to in 20 years (since we got married and left Michigan). We were excited that Kalamazoo was the halfway point!
Making the actual transfer! We’re free! Good luck and Godspeed!
Seriously though, the kids absolutely love this time with the grandparents and couldn’t be more excited… especially after Covid put the kibosh on camp last summer. Here’s to making memories!!
Backstory:
So Tom and I had been to what felt like every decent furniture store in a pretty wide radius trying to find the exact last piece we needed—and just couldn’t find anything. We finally found something that was comfortable and about the right color (we thought) but we got it home and meh—not it. (It clashed with the other gray couch since they were different tones.) So we decided it was a temporary piece and we could take our time finding exactly what we wanted and maybe even get something made.
FAST FORWARD TO TODAY
We were chatting today and someone said something about La-Z Boy. And I was like wait, whaaaaat?
Yes, we’d forgotten about the huge furniture store in town. UGHHHHH. So we decided we had to go just to say we did—and surprise—we found a perfect piece. BECAUSE OF COURSE.
So good news…we found something we like a lot better. Bad news? We’ll need to sell the other couch when this one comes in in September. But at least we have good seating in the meantime!
I then told him to give me a look—
And then of course I had to get a picture with him—
In a surprise turn of events, Aiden was taken to the hospital yesterday with what turned out to be apendicitis—so we took Evan for the first night and then tonight Tom and Katie needed to go over to let the dogs out. Katie always loves on Pepper and tonight was no different.
The first one they tried to deliver had a cracked foot and a really ripped corner. The foot actually totally split and fell off in our house. We didn’t accept it.
The second one had a ripped corner. The third one had leather squares that were totally different colors (I sadly didn’t get a photo of that).
Today was their fourth attempt and it had a little bit of discoloration again but not as bad as the last try—but the interior (when you lift the lid) was all scratched up. So we had to send it back again.
This one was actually the least ruined of them all so far and we told the customer service person that we would accept it at a discount and she offered us $50. On a $1500 ottoman. Ummm no. But sure, let’s keep messing around.
So now we get to wait two weeks for the next attempt because they are getting some new ones direct from the manufacturer in the hopes of getting an acceptable one. With all the prior attempts it was generally 3-4 days.
Our fingers are crossed but we really don’t think it’s gonna happen until number eight or nine.
So, in my recent downtime thanks to my #pissygallbladder I was scrolling my local Facebook groups and saw someone asking for a product recommendation but they explicitly said NO MLMs. Huh? And then another post asked for ways to earn extra income and after a few suggestions someone says “OOH look…here come the MLM folks” with a shark emoji and eyeroll.
I get it. I know these companies (as a whole) get a bad rap because reps added you to parties that you didn’t want to be added to (which is totally bad practice). Or some ladies legit post non-stop about why they have the best products and you roll your eyes… scrolling on.
But I hope you hear me on this…
When someone suggests a new hair care or household item you can pick up at a chain store or order from Amazon, do you think to yourself “UGH, she’s trying to get me to buy something else?!” No, you don’t. You think “Hey cool, my friend likes this and suggested it so I will give it a try.”
Do you have the same disgust for Target ads? Sephora? Tesla? McDonalds? Those are multibillion dollar companies. Your fellow neighbors or friends are just trying to find a way to be a parent and a monetary contributor to their household!
I’m not asking you to support everyone in your friends list by purchasing something. I’m just asking you to have an open mind about why they began that journey and be open minded to what they are trying to accomplish for themselves and their families.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to working from the couch so I can help pay our mortgage this month.
Let me predict what’s going to happen today: Katie has had a friend here all afternoon after her birthday pool party. When she leaves, I will ask Katie to do something (anything, it doesn’t matter) and I’ll get attitude.
And why do I predict this?
Because that’s life with Katie these days. It’s like she’s really a teenager instead of just nine.
ANYWAY. FAST FORWARD.
I asked her three times earlier today to clean up her dinner garbage and each time—
I KNOW MOM!!!
—but she never actually did it so when I noticed after she went to sleep in the basement (a special treat) I called her back up and made her do it. She was pissed. And then—surprise—she DIDN’T FINISH so I called her back again. And she was just pure teenage attitude. So she lost her privilege of sleeping in the basement that night.
So she was being super pissy and stomped upstairs to her room—and decided the best thing to yell at me was “And are your ever going to clean up this pee?” (Maggie had peed at the top of the stairs in the craziness of the pre-party prep that morning and I only had time to put a towel on it. And can only go up the stairs once a day.)
So I might have yelled at her that I had been A LITTLE BUSY AT HER BIRTHDAY PARTY ALL DAY AND OH YES I WAS STILL RECOVERING FROM SURGERY DID SHE FORGET THAT?
It got worse from there. I can’t even recall the things that were said on either side but I did eventually tell her I wouldn’t mind throwing all her birthday presents straight into the garbage because she certainly didn’t deserve them with the attitude she was having.
Unfortunately all my friends with girls say this is normal. And their girls do it, too.
I’m not sure how we’re gonna survive this.
The show must go on! We had paid for the double birthday party and the weather was gorgeous and we were not cancelling—even though lots of people told me they wouldn’t have been surprised. Really, though, most everything was taken care of by the staff—we basically just had to haul in the drinks and snacks and then had the pizza delivered. I pretty much stayed on the picnic table the whole time.
A great time was had by all!
Today was the kids’ dual birthday pool party and I was happy that I felt good enough to put on a face! (Don’t worry, I didn’t over-exert myself—I literally sat at a picnic table the whole time…but more about the party on the next post!)
The community center was having a drive in movie so we thought that would be a nice change of pace. We went with David and Anna and watched Sandlot (really cute). Of course when we planned it, I didn’t know if just be getting out of the hospital… But I really just had to sit there so it was okay!
I’m not sure exactly what happened but I didn’t take a single picture. Anna only took one. (Whaaaaat is happening?)
Of course we did have drama… They handed out glow necklaces to everyone and Owen and Katie found a way to be annoyed with each other over them. Then Katie was excited to see a bunch of her friends there—but refused to go talk to any of them.
But the movie was cute and I think everyone enjoyed it!