When your morning takes an unexpected turn because you misjudged where the stool was and your feet got tangled in the base and both you and two stools went crashing to the ground. Everything is now sore from my wrists to my back to my toes. Here’s hoping this works so I don’t have to get out the prescription stuff.
Maggie has many happy places…but in a comfy bed in the sun with a cool breeze blowing has got to be one of the best. And who am I kidding? I would love to trade her places in a hot second.
Charlie? Not so much.
PSA: These are currently marked down to $8.61 at Sam’s Club. I didn’t know until I checked out because I didn’t use the app today…since I needed a real receipt for Ibotta…since there’s a $2 rebate on them!! SCORE!!
The last of our tomatoes are finally turning red. Fun fact: We didn’t plant these. They came up on their own from seeds dropped last year thanks to the chipmunks who were assholes and ate them off the vine.
And here’s how I got that look!
#damncats
Maggie cuddles with us every night on the couch but just about the time we’re ready to go to bed, I’ll flip her over and she stays like this for anywhere from 5-10 minutes.
So, some of you may have heard the long and involved tale of the table I asked for. If not, the short version is that neighbors had a similar style table that I fell in love with:
I thought it would be perfect for behind our couch for added seating, a place for the kids to eat snacks while watching TV, space for party hosting, etc. So I asked Tom to “throw one together” with the thought that it only needed to last until we moved because I didn’t want to move another big piece of furniture. That was March 27 (I know because that’s the date of the above picture).
Well, if you know Tom, he can’t simply “throw something together” when it comes to anything woodworking. 😂 So he started looking for plans, searching Pinterest, and watching YouTube videos. The time slipped by and weeks passed and I still didn’t have my table…but he was working on it! (To be fair, he doesn’t have a lot of time for projects like this so it was some weeknights and weekends only.) I kept giving him grief because I literally wanted a two-hour table and it was turning into a two-month table.
I did catch glimpses of it now and again and I knew it was going to be neat—he was using wood from various parts of my life, including wood strips from my mom’s basement and wood strips from a dresser my Grandma passed down to my dad and then to me (that finally broke apart during one of our moves)—he was cutting everything into pieces and then gluing them all together. I joked that this table was going to be a family heirloom that Katie‘s grandchildren would enjoy someday.
But it was seeming to take forever and I was growing anxious. After all, we’d already moved pieces around to make room for it—but it wasn’t there—so junk started filling the area and it looked bad.
And time passed. And since the table top had been stored in the garage and it was summer and humid, it warped…which necessitated more time to fix it. And then finally…it was done! Just in time for our back-to-school party on August 17 (or our anniversary on August 18—take your pick!). Tom was literally putting the last coats of sealant on it that morning…bu we were crazy busy so I didn’t even get any photos. That said, these were the legs (which had been painted gray). You’ll notice they are Hs. 🙂
We’d been casually looking for stools for months (we had two we could use but really wanted four) and by chance we found some on NextDoor and picked them up the morning after the party. We had measured the height to make sure they fit…but neither of us thought to ask about the width. I bet you can see where I’m going with this. Yep, two stools together were just a little bit too wide and didn’t fit underneath the table…DAMMIT!! The stools were really perfect and they were an amazing deal…so we ended up changing out the legs which gave us just enough room for the stools. Of course this took more time (but thankfully not too much more).
AND NOW IT’S DONE. AND IT’S PERFECT. AND GORGEOUS. AND I FREAKING LOVE IT.
Tom is simply amazing and I can’t wait to see this in our forever house (and Katie’s forever house 😂). And I can’t wait to see what treasures he builds when he actually gets a real workshop someday…
So we decided to bring the kids today as a special treat and they were super duper excited but—as honestly expected—they didn’t want to go on one damn ride. So Tom walked around with them and I went on rides by my damn self. (I had to put my hair up because I knew it would get crazy on the rides.)
No waiting was the theme of the day. The first ride wasn’t even full. (When I posted this on Facebook, a few friends thought it said margarita hangover which I think is a much better name.)
None of the trains were even full.
This was the perfect day for this. You could literally walk up to most any ride and get right on. NO WAIT. Lather, rinse, repeat as often as you want to. Of course it would’ve been even better had I been able to ride with Tom. (And technically, we could have left the kids while we rode it—especially since there was really no wait—but I’m pretty sure Tom is an old fuddy duddy at this point and doesn’t really want to go on them anyway.)
I’ve started to lose count of all the rides that I’ve been on. But I have taken pictures. And I know my favorites. This is not one.
This. This was my favorite. New. Steel. Smooth as silk. Twists, turns, loops. It was a thing of beauty.
And then I finally caught up to where they had stopped to wait for a ride. This was the one that they decided they would go on. I’m so glad I spent $70 on a season pass for each of them for this. Granted, they did go on it about five times each…
I went on one more while we waited for them.
So, this teacup-style ride was one I was looking forward to because Owen and Katie had both gone on it before, they liked it, and said they would go on it again. Guess who decided they didn’t want to go on it?
So the only other ride that both of the kids agreed to go on? The carousel. HOW ARE THESE MY KIDS?! At least I know we’ll save money next year because there’s no way in hell I’m getting season passes again.
Tom really loves his smoker and he will try smoking just about anything, so today his assignment was fresh corn.
Olive oil, Chipotle lime seasoning, on the smoker for two hours, spritzed with water now and again since we didn’t have another extra two hours to soak the corn ahead of time. I finished mine off with another light sprinkling of the Chipotle lime seasoning. Mmmm. We’ll definitely do this again.
It really wasn’t even that warm but it was warm enough that the kids would go in the pool so off we went. I actually had to move into the sun because sitting in the shade was too chilly for me even wearing a light sweater.
The kids are both off to school so I’m free!! My first day is always spent shopping and doing whatever lazy ass things I want—so today I’m planning shopping and watching TV. 🙂
Long story short, the school schedules all got mixed around this year. Owen used to have to get on the bus at 7:35am (which was perfect because he wakes up around six and he can get himself completely ready all by himself). And then when he was leaving the house at 7:30, I was waking Katie up if she wasn’t already up (which, more often than not, she was still sleeping) to get her on the bus at 8:20.
This year…Katie has to get on the bus at 7:25am…and Owen doesn’t need to get on the bus until 8:50!! Katie has a little bit harder time getting ready on her own (showering and washing her hair) so I have to get up with her—which means I actually have to set an alarm for the first time in two years. At 6am. YUCK.
I had no idea what to expect, but the morning went well. Katie was up by 6:15 and was ready in plenty of time to take first day of school pics. (I did find out after-the-fact that she skipped breakfast so that was a bit of a fail but other than that it went well.)
Usually I take sibling photos right before they get on the bus but Owen had to get dressed quick before she left because he had another hour and a half to wait.
On his way up to shower, he told Katie “If you have to leave before I get out, I love you!” (All together now…AWWWW!) He managed to shower and get dressed before she left for the bus, so he’s now in his first day outfit. Plus he wanted to go to the bus stop with her (and to see Enzo).
And then it was back to the house to waste an hour and a half before his bus.
And with neighbor and friend Nate at the bus stop:
And the official Facebook photo!
When you are laying in bed and you hear something creeping towards you so you blindly take a photo…
When you rarely need a sitter so you don’t even realize that your only sitter (that the kids actually love and beg to come over) has graduated and is now going to college out of state… 🤦🏻♀️😫😭
We have heard all great things about both kids teachers so we’re very excited for the school year. (Good friends of ours told us that they would take Owen’s teacher for every grade from here on out!)
Katie’s was first thing in the morning. If you can believe it, she was super shy. Like SUPER shy.
Owen’s was in the afternoon. He was only somewhat shy. But he was most excited to check out all the names on the desks to make sure that his least favorite classmate from last year was not in his class (she wasn’t).
And then it was off to his first band lesson—a super quick half hour of how to put the saxophone together and make some noise. There were probably 25 kids just for sax alone! Our fingers are crossed that he doesn’t hate it.
Well I’m gonna. It’s just a gym shirt.
So we didn’t have to take the kids out of school to get their passports done, today was pretty much the last day to do it. Tom even took the day off work (twist his arm!) because both parents have to be there and I didn’t want to fill out anymore paperwork (this means he could go to both kids meet the teacher events, too).
Both kids have great smiles in all of their photos, these mug shot photos are killing me.
It was fun going through the pantry to find fun stuff to include!
After seeing some of the crazy (bad) pictures that Owen took with the camera recently, I sent him on a mission to take pictures of things around the house just to make sure he coul actually get something in the frame. These are two he took of Katie that I thought were funny.
Wow. Eighteen years (22 if you count since day one). And there’s no one I’d rather have by my side in this crazy thing called life. 💕
So, we weren’t planning on doing anything to celebrate, then we realized today was our golden anniversary (18th on the 18th). So we decided to take the kids to The Chocolate Sanctuary for a chocolate fountain!!
She wanted to lick the plate!
This lasted through cooking, eating, drinking, rain, waterslide splashes…
We had so much fun last year we decided to do it again!!
The kids were very intrigued when Tom started using the blow torch on the ribs.
It took awhile but by the end of the night, some dads (and one mom—not me!) went down the slide. Which led us to wonder how on Earth these kids could do this non-stop… The adults got tired after just a few times. 😄
And then it was over…the cleanup aftermath. And we can’t wait until next year!!
I’m trying to decide whether to do a full tequila watermelon or just half for the party…? I’m thinking a whole…and any leftovers get turned into watermelon margaritas?!
(I ended up doing the whole thing.)
We thought the slide was going to be delivered Saturday morning…so the kids were thrilled that it came early!
These bags were in a nice pile when I left them the day before.
Why do the kids have to touch everything and mess with it? EVERYTHING! It drives me insane.
Multifocal dailies. I hate the thought of all the packaging waste, but my eyes just can’t handle the monthly lenses anymore. The huge bonus I never thought of? No more contact solution, cleaning solution, or contact cases!! 🙌
Also, Costco FTW! Ordered Monday night, had them Wednesday!