Another Vettix event!
Cirque du Soleil — Crystal
Category Archives: JTOK
Titanic!
We went to a Titanic exhibit today! It was neat to see reproductions of things (dinnerware, rooms, grand stairwell, etc.) as well as a few actual pieces. It was a little crowded so I didn’t take many pictures.
Different menus for different classes:
And we got to walk along the first class promenade:
At the beginning we all got a card detailing the life of a passenger. You find out at the end of the exhibit if your passengers survived—and all four of us did (which I thought was crazy)!
Then it was lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and then home.
Last jazz band concert
Botanical Gardens Lightscape
Admittedly I bitched a lot beforehand about Anna making us go to Lightscape (I’m turning into a major homebody as I get older!)…but it ended up to be super cool and I have apologized.
Happy 21st Anniversary
Happy anniversary to my lobster—21 photos for 21 years! I wouldn’t want to do this life with anyone but you.
And then I realized our marriage is old enough to drink today!
Trying to take an anniversary pic before we left for dinner with Anna and David and we had two photobombers! And I caught Tom mid-scowl.
And we left the kids home with this:
We’ve wanted to stop here for years!
It’s always too late or too early when we drive by…but today it was perfect! It was tooo much ice cream for sure!!
A minor league game!
After an hour drive, the only bad thing about our free Vettix tickets are that we were in the bleachers in the sun. If we came again, we’d spring for actual seats…in the shade!!
It was hot…so Tom got me a margarita!
And the kids got Dipping Dots!
Goodbye sweet girl, we love you.
We’re never ready. And it is unbelievable. The day we bring them home the first time… THIS day feels forever away. Until one day, it’s a day away. It seems impossible. —from my dear friend Kelly
Cuddling with the boys…
I’m so glad we opted to do this at home with Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice. Maggie deserved to be in her own home surrounded by her favorite people being showered with all our love and kisses. It was the kids’ first in-person experience with pet death and it was so very hard but, we thought, necessary.
The vet, Dr. Kylie, was amazing. She was loving and gentle and patient and kind. She gave us privacy to say our goodbyes and made a paw print for us.
Goodbye, sweet girl. We love you more than you could ever know.
We wrapped her and sent her off in one of her blankets.
Tom chose to carry her to the vet’s car.
And then we all cried some more and tried to parse that Maggie was really gone…the house just seemed so quiet and empty.
It’s honestly a blur (writing this 9 days after the fact). I don’t remember what we all did. But I do know that Owen had to get ready to get braces later in the day — I had asked if he wanted to reschedule and he said no.
Thanksgiving 2021
All of the googly eyes make this delicious appetizer tablescape perfect.
Fall family walk!
We decided to take a walk in our amazing neighborhood during Sparty halftime since it was such a nice day. (Also, one of these things is not like the other.)
Go Sparty!
And this pic I snapped as she was trying to get out of the picture? This looks like she could be 3yo again.
Papa wanted some new pics of them with the kids!
We haven’t all dressed for game day in awhile!
This might be the best forest preserve we have been to yet.
We had to go pick up a Facebook purchase for Katie’s room and I knew we’d be close to some parks…and it was finally a sunny day…so we dragged the whole family along. We hadn’t been here before but we will definitely be back! Lots of parking, lots of great trails (paved and wooded), pavilions, bathrooms, a lake…and a ton of Pokémon stops!!
Let’s remember how sweet she can be.
I took this picture so on an upcoming day when she’s being a little brat, I can point out to Tom that there was a point at which she was being cute and sweet.
We did have Anna take a family photo later on the walk to prove we actually got out of the house.
Going off trail to explore the lake. They were so excited you’d think they’d never seen water before.
We are officially homeowners again!!
After some last-minute drama (with getting the funds wired the morning of)…it’s a done deal. We are now the proud owners of a 30-year mortgage! But it’s seriously our dream house and we couldn’t be happier. Tom and I just keep saying What did we do?! Oh yeah, we bought a house THAT WE LOVE.
I mean, we have purchased two houses in the past and they were both great for us at the time but we never loved them. We. LOVE this. house. (Is it perfect? Of course not. But does it check all of our boxes? Minus a lazy river and a four car garage… Yes.)
And then Anna brought the kids over…and was our family photographer!!
Our last family photo in front of my birch tree!
On our way to buy a house!
Surprise! The kids saw their new back yard!
We went on yet another walk in our new neighborhood today and the homeowner was outside in the garage and we quickly debated introducing ourselves or not…and I said WHAT THE HELL and long story short she’s super awesome—she was excited to meet all of us, reiterated that she’s thrilled the house is going to a nice family, and she let us show the kids the back yard.
She also told us she was leaving two additional TVs (one in the wet bar and one in the gazebo), that we were welcome to start bringing stuff over to leave in the third garage bay, plus, after we exchanged numbers, invited us over for a house tour and a drink on the deck!
Both kids are super excited about the gazebo.
We also got to scout out the back yard again to see where we could put a small shed so that was good.
We might be walking in our new neighborhood again…
Today taking a trip around the park to spin some Pokestops. We close in 24 days! 😱
Today’s family walk!
Katie is more excited than she looks as she picked this route. She just wants to go play in the gross water and was mad at us for making her take a picture.
Last day of school and eLearning (2nd and 5th).
Katie picked out this fancy dress to go to school supply pickup. Of course she hadn’t showered in three days.
She missed her last class Zoom meeting where they were going to share their goodbye posters so I posted it to the school’s page and sent it to her teacher.
School supply pickup was more emotional for me than I anticipated. I might have gotten a little teary-eyed as we drove away. I asked Katie if she was okay and told her I was sad so it was okay if she was. She said she was a little sad but she was okay. Leave it to Mom to be overly emotional.
Then we had to go through a huge garbage bag of Katie’s stuff…including…a lunch bag. Thankfully it was empty!! We were all thinking we’d have to just toss the whole thing. Phew! Oh, and we had an outfit change!
Then it was time to take Owen’s pictures—-and he hadn’t showered in awhile, either. But Tom had given him a buzz cut.
Normally last day of school pics are just me and the kids…
…but since Dad is working from home, he got in on the action. #gonnamissthisbench
Checking things out in the new ‘hood!
We might have gone to check out our house (sold sign!) and walk the new neighborhood.
This is the park that is three houses down from us!!
Mother’s Day Cuddles
I don’t get family cuddles often but this morning was one of them!
The Masked Hudsons
Masks, made with love, from a dear friend. We love them!
Owen became a Boy Scout today!
Getting ready to head out to the Blue & Gold bridge ceremony.
As part of the ceremony, all the scouts had to saw a piece of wood.
There was an Arrow of Light ceremony where parents present the scout with a homemade arrow with bands of color signifying all the things the scouts have completed. Unfortunately Owen was so new to the troop that he wasn’t able to get one, so he was the only scout not up front. But then they called him up separately and gave him a really nice introduction (among other things they said what a great addition he was to the troop) and I didn’t record it because I totally wasn’t expecting it!
And then they all did the pledge.
They each got a chance to say thank you as they crossed the bridge.
Owen getting his new neckerchief and scout book.
All new Scouts!
Happy Holidays from the road!
We’re headed to Michigan in our new car…which is stuffed to the gills!!
Let’s feed some kids!
Owen’s scout pack was volunteering at Feed My Starving Children so we all went!
Owen on bags and Katie on the weigh station. Four separate scoops of vitamins, veggies, soy (protein), and rice go in the bag, then it’s weighed (it has to be between 380-400 grams), then it’s sealed (my station), and then 36 bags go in a box!
The kids switched to the scoop station!
After, I might have also done some personal and Christmas shopping (each gift provides a various number of meals) plus bought a year’s worth of meals for a child.
We enjoyed it so much we will likely go back with friends to do it again!!
Our first real tree…ever.
Our first real tree since we’ve been together…and supporting the scouts! I really wanted a huge tree but we have very limited space for one. Also? There’s no way it was going in my new car—the days of hauling messy crap is over. 😂
We got rid of our fake tree last year because I was just tired of it…so we got a real tree this year! The plan was to get a fake tree in the after-Christmas clearance sales, but we might wait another year or two to see what house we have next. If we happen to get a house that will fit a 12′ tree…well, then I want a 12′ tree. 🙂 So this is the first time we have EVER had a real tree! (Note: the bummer? It doesn’t smell AT ALL.)
I AM MINIVAN FREE!!!
So we did a thing today. Pretty much unplanned, which is how we roll. 😂🤷🏻♀️
Monday I innocently checked our Sienna loan for some reason I can’t remember and saw it was almost paid off. The mistake was telling Tom but I was excited. He knows I don’t want a minivan so he always has some cars he’s thinking of so he/we started watching hours of YouTube reviews…
Then we decided to just check them out since December is the best month to get a great deal. (Well…except for the two we were looking at since they’re both new and well rated and hard to find. 😂) So we test drove the Kia Telluride last night and it was okay, but figured we should at least see what our car was worth so we started the day by just getting a CarMax appraisal…and it was really really good (holy crap Toyotas hold their value!) so then it was off to Hyundai to at least test drive the Palisade to compare…
And the dealer agreed to price match the Carmax appraisal and then had two small incentives, plus we got a lower interest rate (2.9 to 1.9) so we said what the hell. 🤷🏻♀️
Our payment did go up by $25 (we had wanted it to stay exactly the same) but considering everything it wasn’t that bad. Of course I always forget insurance also goes up… 🤦🏻♀️ And I still hated the entire process (“let me go talk to my manager”)…but in the end, I AM MINIVAN FREE!!!!!
These are sad faces because even though I never wanted a minivan we have lots of good memories in this car…plus I’m an emotional sap. It was sad, though, to have to put everything into garbage bags—I wanted to at least go home and empty it out.
HAPPY FACES! This mama is soooo happy to be back in an SUV you don’t even know. And there are so many safety features on the Palisade I can’t even remember them all. Now to register the car in Michigan when we go home for Christmas…
Happy Friendsgiving!
Tom did a thing. (A brined, spatchcocked, and smoked turkey.)
A family photo before we left…
Dinner prep was fun. I got to make gravy. 😄 I didn’t take any pics of the rest off the food but it was all yummy.
A real non-selfie family photo since we had someone who could take the photo for us!
Decorating turkey cookie pieces.
Snuggling with Katie and Anna’s brother’s dog, who I nicknamed Peanut because he was all of maybe 2#, tops.
He cuddled in my lap for at least two hours. No, I don’t want a Chihuahua.
