This is what happens when I want to take a pic.
Category Archives: Katie
Watching their girl leave for school.
Look how many pairs of shoes of Katie’s I can see in one shot.
Katie’s room part 742.
Well. It’s time. Katie has ignored all requests to clean up her room so it’s being emptied. I even gave her two extras afternoons and she didn’t do a single thing.
I literally scooped piles of shit from her closet, using my feet as rakes because it was legit a foot deep. Including dishes, MY SHOES, actual garbage, and lots of stuff she’s gonna miss.
I’m making her sort it now so she can see everything she’s losing.
She pretty much admitted she thought I was going to pull stuff out and she’d get to pick what she wanted to keep. Hahahahahahahaha I told her she lost that option a long time ago. She’s losing A LOT OF STUFF.
Egg hunt 2023
Katie’s note to the Easter bunny
Ivy cuddles
Spring Break Day 6: State Parks
We were up early to start the day at Weeki Wachee State Park — we were planning on hitting the waterpark and the live mermaid show (which they are famous for). But unfortunately, Linda and I BOTH read the information completely wrong in the exact same way…so the actual waterpark (slides, lazy river, etc.) wasn’t open. There were some birds wandering around but other than that it was pretty dead.
We did stay for the mermaid show and though it was neat it wasn’t super exciting. I guess it’s a cool “Hey we did that” time!
So then Lin wanted to head to another park—Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. We stopped for lunch at a random pizza place I found on Yelp and had to laugh when it was right next to a Marine Corps recruiting office!
I can honestly say I’ve never seen this sign before:
Then we stopped for ice cream on our way home…because how could you NOT stop at this huge ice cream cone?!
And then it was time to go home…which the kids were excited about because Grannie said we could go to the pool and promised Owen he could drive!
It was pretty dead when we got there around 6. I actually went in the pool and underwater with Katie! She was impressed I could do a front and back somersault — and she finally did a back one on her own. When Owen and Grannie came back about an hour later, the pool was empty except for my two.
Sidenote: The yacht-rock-esque station is playing Soldier of Love by Donny Osmond. It’s from 1989. GET OFF MY LAWN.
Then Katie and I sat on the back of the golf cart for our final ride…and had some fun as we rode over some bumps and Owen took some corners a little crazy.
Spring Break Day 5: Manatees!
Linda surprised us and told us she wanted to take us swimming with the manatees! So, being in a wetsuit was a first for me and the kids!
Unfortunately, this time of year is the end of the season — most manatees have already begun the trek to warmer waters — so we actually had to hunt for them a bit. We eventually found this mom and baby and followed them, hoping they’d go into calmer waters…which they did, but they didn’t really go to a place we could easily get to them.
We did eventually get into the water but it was hard to see much since the water was so cloudy. That said, at one point, a manatee swam directly under me! Like inches below me!
The guide was taking photos for us so that was nice not to have to worry about…but the manatees weren’t very calm today so we didn’t get pics of us with them underwater. This is about the best we got of us in the same photo:
The kids loved the guide’s description of them as “2000 pound sea potatoes!”
Back home, we completed the beach glass puzzle with one day to spare!
Owen was serenading us with his snoring.
Spring Break Day 4 Sunday
Today we went out to eat a late lunch with Linda’s Aunt Carol (who lives about 30 minutes away) and then went back to swim in her community pool! The kids loved the indoor pool!
Once again, Grannie and the kids went to the village square to listen to the live music while I stayed home and worked!
Spring Break Day 3
We started the day with a delicious breakfast at The Flying Biscuit and then did some souvenir shopping.
On the way home we stopped at a farmer’s market to get some Honey Bell oranges (omggggggg they were super juicy and delicious) and couldn’t resist taking a pic of this gigantic carrot!
Then we went home and went to the pool again for a bit.
It was nicer outside than in so I did my reading thang on the porch (yes, with sunglasses and reading glasses).
Grannie and the kids went to the village square to listen to the live music while I stayed home and worked!
Spring Break Day 2
Grannie surprised the kids with a longer golf cart drive…for Johnny Rockets for brunch — somewhere we ate on the cruise! They loved it! Grannie and I enjoyed adult shakes.
Then we walked around a little, Katie named two turtles in the bay, we got some souvenirs, and then went to another pool.
I had this exchange with the waitress:
Waitress: So that's a strawberry daiquiri.
Me: Margarita.
Waitress: Yes, daiquiri.
Me: Not daiquiri, margarita.
Waitress: Yes I know what you mean.
Aaaand it tasted like a daiquiri to me! (Not bad but…not a margarita!)
Back to the pool after dinner…
Unfortunately someone got a little too much sun…
Soooo happy to be able to wash my face tonight!
Spring Break Day 1
Welcome to creepy crawlies!
First practice session driving the golf cart! Grannie is brave!!!
Driving all of us to the pool!
My view today from the shade of a cabana at one of the “executive” pools.
Katie: I haven’t put sunscreen on in a long time. This feels weird to be doing it in March.
The kids immediately disappeared in the pool. Grannie was in the sun. The music was great. I read my Kindle and hit the adults-only hot tub — then ordered a frozen margarita!
Of course I was 100% in my element—so the kids didn’t want to stay too long. (I thought we’d be there all day like we are when we go to our pool…but we were only there like 1.5 hours!)
Aaaaand we’re off to Florida!
It only took us about 15 minutes from Tom dropping us off to sitting at our gate!
I gave the kids mini lessons on how to navigate in an airport—checking boards for gate info, following signs, using the moving walkway, how to take your suitcase on an escalator, etc. Gave them my credit card and told them to go buy their own lunches.
This was the biggest gate I’ve ever been at—an entire room!—which makes sense because it was the biggest plane I’ve been on (3/4/3 seat configuration)!
Aaaaand I realized halfway to the airport that I forgot my cleanser! If you know me at all, you know I’m crazy about my skincare regimen!! So it was INSTANT panic! So I asked in one of my distributor chats if anyone happened to be close to where I was staying…thinking someone could mail something and I’d maybe get it next day. And a handful of ladies volunteered to ship something but someone was actually in the same area! And she’s dropping off some skincare samples for me tomorrow!
Yes she’s in the crate
Cuties
Happy St. Patty’s!
Katie sent us this Ivy photo
We were at dinner at David and Anna’s and Katie needed time on her phone so she could send us a cute Ivy pic.
It must be gremlins, then?
I discovered this mess today. No one claims it. Not even Owen, the only person in charge of emptying the dishwasher.
NIMCon Solo Ensemble
Northern Illinois Music Conference
Thankfully it wasn’t too far to Highland Park Middle School—and they looked pretty alert for 8am.
Between performances we just hung around the library/cafeteria area with Lucas’ parents. It’s a really nice school.
Owen’s big ensemble did The Entertainer and it was really good!
After the performance, the judge gives them a few tips and suggestions and has them practice some bars again to see the difference. It’s really neat.
That’s not what a snuffle mat is for.
But it’s a fun game! No matter how hard they pull they can’t move it!
Office Revamp Day 2
Katie wanted to help paint so we let her!
First non-snowday snowday!
So… eLearning. That’s what day the kids get now if we get bad weather. Bummer for them now…but one less day they have to go in June.
Katie (and Owen) had all their work done by 11:30!
We took the kids out for lunch because the weather wasn’t that bad…but it was starting to get slippery by the time lunch was over. And then I came back home to my book and my chair and my dogs.
Valentine’s Day 2023
Katie helped me finish my Blessing Bags so I could deliver them today!
It’s dusty in here.
I’m going through my old photos…
A day of dogs.
Olive and Ivy, Day 2
Ivy explored the main level and played a little with Olive. Olive is a little jealous but they’ve sniffed each other a bunch and then napped together on my lap.
Then since it was a nice sunny day we went outside. And they played and ran and it was a delight to watch!
Oooh, sticks are fun!
A lucky shot!
And then the fun ended when Ivy was digging in the dirt… which earned her a bath!
And later, she refused to walk out the sliding door…but I got this amazing photo.
Fast forward to evening…
Introducing…Ivy!
We had a list of about 12 names we were considering, but Ivy won by process of elimination! (Some of the last to get eliminated were Sissy, Sadie, and Ruby.)
And of course Anna and David came over to meet her! Olive couldn’t get enough of her.
And as soon as Ivy got up… Olive took her place!
It’s official — I’ve lost my damn mind!
I’ve agreed to get a second dog.
We’d been thinking about getting a cat to have a friend/playmate for Olive, but long story short that’s just not a workable option…so when Tom found Boston puppies locally it sparked the discussion. I still have reservations, but Tom loves to remind me I’ve always said I wanted a fleet of Bostons.
So we discussed it with the kids (Katie was REALLY excited—enough to offer to pay for part!) and discussed it ourselves…and decided to take Olive to meet her and at least see what happened.
The lady warned us that “Sasha” was really shy so everyone was surprised when they got along! (Maggie never got along with other Bostons so we didn’t expect much.) They even ran around and played a bit!
We don’t have a name yet but we get her Monday. ❤️ (We had to put all of Christmas away first.)
BrickFest was a dud.
We’ve been to a BrickFest before in Virginia and it was AMAZING. So we were excited to go again… Except this one was a complete dud compared to that. Super SUPER disappointing.
There were basically NO displays—the previous one had city blocks, automation (think roller coaster), big things, little things, selfie stations…
This one had some giant creations:
and a very small area of smaller creations like this:
but that was about it. Most of it was lame (for older kids) stuff like “make and race a Lego car”
or “create a glow in the dark Lego” (which Owen did to at least do something).
The kids also did one square of a bigger design—which we would never see.
But man did the store and checkout lines take up a ton of space (conservatively 1/4 of the venue):
This was the best part for me—a local artist who did lilacs. I’m going to need that ASAP.
What was even more disappointing is that we were supposed to go with Anna and family—but long story short they got there after us and got stuck in a huge line and then we discovered it sucked so they just gave up and never made it in.
After we got home I decided to look up the last one we went to…and discovered it wasn’t BrickFest, but was BrickFair. UGHHHHH.