Olive was being very bitey and Anna was trying to flick her in the nose while avoiding the teeth. I managed to snap this action photo! It looks like they’re jamming to music!

Olive was being very bitey and Anna was trying to flick her in the nose while avoiding the teeth. I managed to snap this action photo! It looks like they’re jamming to music!
Great weather (after the horrible heat and humidity wave we had), a nice breeze, SEATS IN THE SHADE, friends (Anna and Kelly!), good music, peanut M&Ms, a cold beverage, and a library book!
And makeup that would stay on if I dared to go swimming — I did go in up to my neck as a starter!
All that’s missing are shawls and readers (they’ll come out soon). What you can’t see: margaritas.
Olive is helping:
We haven’t seen each other in person in about eight years, so when she was going to be in Chicago for a work convention, she just added on a few extra days to come stay here!
Unfortunately our planning failed a bit and she couldn’t get an Uber out of the city so at 4:30 we had to drive and pick her up in downtown Chicago!
We drove straight back to our favorite restaurant, Primo, for dinner with Anna and David. We had a great time…and we introduced Kelly to the deer.
Then it was back to our house for drinks and conversation! And a new friendship was forged tonight—now we just need to get Kelly to move here.
P.S. I think we look pretty good — it was a hot and crappy day and our makeup still looks spot on!
Candy, Anna, and I were working on some Vote YesWTHS reminder postcards today and we even roped the kids into helping (and they have better handwriting than we do)!
It was very weird having the kids sign theirs “class of 2027” and “class of 2030”!!!!
Olive just loves Honey SOOOO much. She gets the butt wiggles every time.
She paws at her face.
And then she’s tuckered out.
When one of us is in our egg chair, we call the other to see if we happen to be in our chairs at the same time. We rarely are. Tonight we were.!
It had been waaay too long since we’d all been together so we went out for brunch!
She was on Anna’s lap, but still…
I was taking care of Anna’s animals for a day and their newest cat, Ash, gave me lots of loving. Kai also got his face in there, too.
We finally did Katie’s Christmas gift! And my friend Amy helped because I’d never done anything exactly like that before! (I could totally do it now, though, after watching!)
And after the shower… plus look how long her hair finally is!!
There was no way in hell I was missing this on the big screen…
My thoughts?
Our welcoming committee (Katie) was dressed and out waiting a good 15 minutes before guests were supposed to arrive!
I apparently don’t know how to make food for less than 30 people.
It was a BBQ so Tom did pulled pork (which requires cole slaw since we lived in North Carolina for eight years), baked beans, and cornbread. Then we added three flavors of smoked cream cheese with three types of crackers, pea and peanut salad, peanuts, cashews, fresh fruit and chips for the kiddos, and someone brought the veggie tray (and desserts which aren’t in the photo).
Y’all have seen my avatar by now, I assume, since she’s been around since 2018.
Well, I figured four years was long enough to use the el cheapo Fiverr look (which I did love)…so when my friend Joyanne offered to design something new for me as practice for her new business, I jumped at the chance!
And I’m in love! I mean, who doesn’t want to look like a Disney princess?! And of course I still have my trademark margarita…but my hair is shorter and I’ve got a cardigan now (and I’m not quite as slim as I was back then). And yes, the margarita is a more realistic appropriate size!
That said, part of me is sad to give up the old me because it has memories…but we all need to grow and evolve…so in with the new!
Owen and Evan had a game afterward and Tom and Owen had to leave right from graduation.
As a school board member, Anna was able to hand her kids their diplomas.
Today I got together with some new friends for a few hours to write reminder to vote yes postcards for the upcoming Referendum. It’s critical that this passes so the high school gets enough money for a full day of classes as well as extracurricular activities and sports.
I might not have looked at how big the bully sticks were on Amazon.
Visiting with Honey again. Olive LOVES her.
She’s so regal-looking here.
She found that napkin on the deck and proudly carried it under the chair and sat on it. I went to take her picture and caught her right as she started to bark at me.
She met Anna’s mom!
And Honey!
OMGGGGGGG!!! I casually mentioned to a client that anytime she wanted to bring me a bouquet of lilacs…
And look what appeared on my porch today?!
My kitchen smells sooooo good!
Yes these will eventually taper off but right now she is just so damn cute.
Her first trip to the park! She needs to start getting used to her harness and a leash!
Anna let us borrow her cat sweatshirt.
I loved Maggie fiercely and was devastated when we had to put her to sleep earlier this year. I knew we’d get another Boston Terrier eventually, but I wasn’t ready quite so soon (just over two months).
Emotionally I was okay but I was really enjoying having NOTHING to take care of (kids don’t really count as they mostly take care of themselves). Tom wasn’t thinking about that—he just wanted a puppy. But guess who’s going to be home with her ALL DAY EVERY DAY?! (You know if I would have told Tom I was getting him a new daily job he would have said oh hell no, right?!)
That said, I did kind of miss having SOMETHING around the house. And she IS super cute…I’ll give her that. This is the first photo we got of her:
We stopped in Normal on the way back and had dinner with Marie and Gabi!
Meeting Anna.
As soon as I saw free tickets for Bon Jovi, I had to get them. I mean Bon Jovi WAS high school. And I know there’s been some stuff since then that I’ve liked. And I’m still trying to do more things outside my box.
But let me say right up front that even though this was a bucket list concert, I was not impressed. /cry
From now on, I’m checking the setlist FIRST. I only knew like 1/3 of the songs! And his voice wasn’t great—plus the sound system seemed off and it was like he was screaming to be heard over the music. And holy hell the people that want to stand for the whole damn thing (I know this argument can go on forever). Ughhhh. But then, maybe I’m just old and cranky. But to be honest it wasn’t just me. We all agreed.
Amazingly, the Eagles last week blew this concert out of the park. I guess they can’t all be winners.
So I knew I wanted to wear a red, so what better red than my fave no-longer-available Mojave?! Which then called for a slightly more subdued eye, so I went with more earth tones. And my shirt had to be #runsonlipstickandsarcasm!
We stopped in to check on the cats while Anna and David were camping…and we snagged Ash for a proof of life photo!
We might have been the youngest people here. Or close to it.
They were so, so good. They did THREE HOURS! We were up past our bedtime but it was worth it!
As my bestie Anna said when she found this at our local consignment shop—this is the most Jen shirt to have ever Jenned.